Counselling Tutor

My Role: User Behaviour Analyst
Client: Counselling Tutor
Collaborators: Hancock and Rowe (Design & Build)

Counselling Tutor is a leading UK provider of online learning resources, CPD courses and training materials for counselling students and qualified practitioners. Their platform supports thousands of users globally, offering a blend of academic content, professional development, and community support for those working in or training for therapeutic professions.

The audit formed the foundation for measurable improvements across the redesigned Counselling Tutor site. Following implementation by Hancock and Rowe:

• The site saw an average conversion uplift of +103%, with some pages increasing by over 400%.

• Click-through rates on key calls-to-action rose by more than 100%, and in some individual cases up to 693%.

• User journeys became clearer, faster, and better aligned with audience intent, allowing both students and practitioners to quickly find what they needed.

My role focused on creating a solid behavioural foundation for the redesign. Before any design decisions were made, I conducted a comprehensive user behaviour audit (UBA) to uncover exactly how visitors were engaging with the existing Counselling Tutor website and crucially, where they weren’t.

This included:

• Heatmap analysis (scroll depth, click rate and mouse movement) across 20 pages for both desktop and mobile.
• Review of 100 recorded user sessions to trace real-world navigation patterns and points of frustration.
• Analysis of two user surveys to capture self-reported needs, motivations, and pain points.

From this data, I generated clear, actionable insights – pinpointing usability barriers, content blind spots, and navigation friction that were invisible from analytics alone. I then translated these findings into practical design recommendations that gave Hancock and Rowe’s team a confident, evidence based starting point for restructuring and redesigning the site.

The project’s success relied on close, transparent collaboration. I worked directly with Hancock and Rowe to ensure insights were not only accurate but strategically usable.

By bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise, my analyses bridged the gap between data and design – balancing quantitative rigour (click and scroll metrics) with qualitative empathy (user intent, tone and frustration patterns). This approach turned abstract analytics into design storytelling that informed both structure and tone of the new experience.

A major challenge lay in the diversity of Counselling Tutor’s audience. Student counsellors and qualified practitioners had very different goals, yet navigated the same ecosystem. Interpreting behavioural data across these groups deepened my ability to segment user intent and tailor insight to different audience needs.

Another learning edge came from synthesising large, unstructured data (over 100 session recordings and extensive survey responses) into concise, design-friendly insights. This reinforced my belief that the true value of a behavioural audit lies not just in finding problems, but in communicating them clearly enough to drive confident design decisions.

For any organisation preparing to redesign or optimise a digital product, a user behaviour audit provides the critical evidence base that turns uncertainty into clarity. It reveals how users truly experience your content by identifying what’s working, what’s not, and why.

Integrating this analysis early in the process can save months of iteration, ensure the design is guided by real user behaviour, and ultimately deliver more meaningful results.