Structuring User Acquisition
UX Designer
Role
Time
2 Weeks
Desktop
Platform
Context
Nazaré Maverick’s is a conceptual surf academy designed to help aspiring surfers discover, book, and attend specialized ocean classes. The academy aims to lower the barrier of entry for surf education by providing clear skill progression pathways, certified instructor matching, and seamless class scheduling.
The primary business objective for this initiative was to drive acquisition, boost overall website traffic, and optimize the new user onboarding flow. In a niche market where surf lesson sign-ups are typically fragmented across legacy booking engines or local walk-in kiosks, Nazaré Maverick’s sought to capture early-stage search traffic and convert curious visitors into committed, first-time students.
Scope
As the UX Researcher , my goal was to bridge the gap between initial user discovery and class conversion. Working directly from the school’s strategic brief, I conducted extensive user research to diagnose drop-off points and re-architect the digital experience. To demonstrate how potential students would discover, evaluate, and enroll in classes, I developed a comprehensive UX framework—including targeted user flows, journey maps, and full product maps—that streamlined navigation and established a seamless booking pipeline.
The Problem: Acquisition Bottlenecks & Onboarding Drop-off
Nazare Maverick’s surf school faced significant drops in user engagement due to discoverability issues and a fragmented navigation structure. Based on competitive analysis, other schools faced similar issues due to poor structure on how users would find their sites and how their sites could be navigated to apply to classes faster and for the schools higher retention rates.
“Users consistently could not find content because they either did not notice the local navigation, or they scanned the drop-down options quickly and missed the key links. Once they hovered off the menus, they were back to guessing...
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Process
To turn the school's unstructured client brief into a seamless booking experience, I used FigJam to systematically map out the site's structural architecture and user pathways before touching high-level strategy:
User Journey Mapping:
I started by mapping the end-to-end student journey to identify key drop-off points between initial discovery such as clicking a social media promo ad and actual class enrollment. This allowed me to pinpoint exact moments where prospective surfers needed reassurance regarding class prerequisites, instructor safety, and location details.
User Flow Development:
Next, I constructed detailed user flows to visualize the decision-making paths a visitor takes when evaluating and booking a class. Mapping these branching logic paths helped me eliminate dead-end pages, streamline the promotional code redemption process, and ensure a linear, intuitive checkout flow.
Product Mapping & Structural Hierarchy:
Finally, I established a comprehensive product map to organize the site's feature set. I strategically categorized complex operational data including beach locations, gear rentals, instructor profiles, and registration forms into an intuitive information architecture so users can instantly find what they need without cognitive friction.
Solution
To resolve the client’s disorganized operational data and streamline new student onboarding, I replaced the cluttered content structure with a strategic Information Architecture (IA) framework. By grounding the design in user journey mapping, product mapping, user flows, and a clear IA chart, I built a frictionless blueprint that guides visitors seamlessly from ad discovery to class enrollment.
User Journey Map:
Mapped the complete student lifecycle to bridge the gap between initial social media ad discovery and final class registration. By identifying critical touchpoints where prospective surfers experience hesitation, the journey map strategically places reassuring content—such as ocean safety protocols, clear skill prerequisites, and instructor credentials—at high-intent decision moments.
User Flow Diagram:
Architected a linear, low-friction decision path that eliminates multi-click redirects and dead-end pages. The flow explicitly optimizes the promotional code redemption path, ensuring users arriving from social campaigns can select a beach location, apply their promo discount, and complete checkout without losing momentum.
Product Map:
Organized the school’s extensive operational data—including instructor bios, class offerings, equipment rentals, and multiple Los Angeles beach locations—into clear functional modules. This structural blueprint defines exactly how site features interconnect, ensuring every piece of content has a logical home.
Information Architecture (IA) Chart:
Established a clear, scannable site hierarchy that groups complex information into intuitive navigation tiers. By categorizing classes by skill level and simplifying global navigation, the IA chart ensures users can retrieve location schedules and booking details within 2–3 clicks.
Reflection
Working on Nazaré Mavericks really highlighted how critical Information Architecture is when working with complex, messy client data. It’s easy to focus on visual design, but this project proved that no amount of clean UI can fix a broken underlying structure. By stepping back and tackling the content chaos first through journey mapping and product mapping, I learned how to transform scattered operational details into a strategic, business-focused user experience that actually drives class enrollments. Given more time, I would translate the IA chart and user flows into interactive mobile and desktop prototypes, specifically focusing on building high-contrast, outdoor-legible UI layouts for surfers checking class schedules on-site at the beach.