Vernier Software & Technology + UserTesting

Vernier Software & Technology is an educational software and equipment company based in Beaverton, Oregon, that produces sensors and graphing software for use in science education. Vernier’s customers are K-college Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) educators, who instruct the world’s next generation of scientists, engineers, tinkerers, and problem solvers. 

With over 30,000 pages, Vernier’s website had grown unwieldy over the years and needed a rebuild. The organization did not have a dedicated UX Team, but they understood that a qualitative solution could help them understand how to best design and organize content for educators. Delight Marketing Manager, Kristen Paniagua, backed by executives like CMO Olga Vargas and CEO John Wheeler, sought to leverage UserTesting to better understand customer behaviors and preferences in pursuit of this effort. 

Vernier rebuilt the website as planned. In the process of this rebuild, however, they came to learn that the global pandemic would also require them to readdress how they market their products.

When the pandemic struck, educators faced an immediate transition from teaching in a classroom or laboratory setting, where they typically use Vernier’s products, to teaching remotely. STEM educators struggled to keep students engaged online and in Zoom rooms. They also struggled with high costs, poor safety, and a lack of supervision. 

Vernier created a new website section specifically for remote learning. Through UserTesting, educators from each segment provided feedback about their needs and explained how the website’s remote learning section could serve them best. They needed materials that they could incorporate into their curriculums immediately! And hearing from middle school educators, high school STEM teachers, and college professors quickly helped Vernier to respond with the content they needed. 

According to Kristen Paniagua, “We used to use focus groups or in-depth interviews to gather information, but these in-person activities took so long to plan. With UserTesting, we hear from educators within a couple hours, and this works so well for our fast-paced team. The educators we serve get the most refined journey and messaging to help them find what they need quickly, especially our SaaS products during the pandemic, to help them keep their students engaged.”

Kristen explains how UserTesting helped grow Vernier’s UX function. “Because UserTesting demonstrated the value of implementing customer feedback into our processes, we have established a small UX team to investigate improving our content, and I have the privilege of leading this team.” 

That team now works in sprints to test content and glean feedback from educators. Through that testing, they continue to further improve Vernier’s exceptional customer experience.