Dehto School
Client
Dehto School
Year
2024
Overview
A full website redesign for an online German language school — 9 pages, new brand identity, mobile adaptive — that tripled traffic and engagement within weeks of launch.
The product dehto school is a Ukrainian online German language school offering individual lessons, video courses, split sessions, and speaking clubs. The client came with an existing dark-themed website and a clear ask: make it modern, recognizable, and different from every other language school online.
The project covered the full design scope — competitive research, brand identity, UX architecture, and UI across all 9 pages including mobile adaptive. This project was delivered while leading a design agency, where I was the lead designer on the engagement.
Scope of Work
Background
A product people trusted — a website that didn't reflect it.
Dehto had built a real community of German learners with strong course content and active instructors. But the website told a different story: a dark, text-heavy layout with low visual hierarchy, no clear differentiation from competitors, and conversion paths that were hard to find.
Target audience: 16–40 year olds learning German for relocation, work, travel, or university — a demographic that judges credibility by design before reading a single word of copy.
The GA4 data before redesign confirmed the issue:
page_view: 3,600
user_engagement: 2,900
first_visit: 800
form_start: not tracked — the form wasn't converting enough to measure
Challange
Stand out. Convert. Feel native on mobile.
The design had to solve three things simultaneously:
1 — Differentiation Every Ukrainian language school looks the same — stock photos, blue-green palettes, generic hero sections. dehto needed a visual identity that was immediately recognizable and felt like a brand, not a template.
2 — Conversion The existing site buried its CTAs and had no clear visual hierarchy between the school's offerings — individual lessons, video courses, and speaking clubs competed for equal attention. The redesign needed to guide users toward action.
3 — Mobile experience A 16–40 audience discovers through Instagram and Telegram. The previous site had no intentional mobile design. Every page needed a full responsive adaptive.
Discovery
Competitive audit + GA4 analysis.
EnglishDom — strong brand, clean pricing pages, good mobile
GreenForest — high trust signals, instructor-forward design
JustSchool (justschool.me) — modern UI, clear course hierarchy
BeebestSchool (bebestschool.com) — good course card design
Preply — international benchmark for individual lesson UX
Goethe Institut Ukraine — institutional credibility signals
SpracheKurs / Deutsch Online — direct German-specific competitors
What competitors do well: clear course hierarchy, instructor photos with credibility signals, prominent CTAs above the fold, pricing transparency.
What none of them had: a distinctive visual personality. Most looked interchangeable. This was dehto's opportunity.
GA4 audit findings:
Homepage had the most traffic but lowest engagement time — users landing and leaving
"Подати заявку" page had only 125 views — CTA discovery was broken
Video progress events were low — course pages weren't reaching scroll depth
Thinking
Brand first. Then conversion.
Brand identity Developed a custom visual system: bold typography, high-contrast layout, a distinctive character mascot used as a recurring element across pages. The goal was a design that felt energetic and approachable for a 16–40 audience — not corporate, not generic.
Hypotheses that shaped the design:
H1: A recognizable mascot/character increases brand recall and return visits
H2: Clear service hierarchy (individual → video → clubs) reduces decision fatigue and increases CTA click-through
H3: Showing instructor faces and credentials on landing increases trust and form submissions
H4: Adding partner logos (Monobank etc.) above the fold increases perceived legitimacy
H5: Mobile-first navigation with sticky CTA increases application submissions from mobile
Page architecture 9 pages structured around the user's decision journey — from discovery (home) to course-specific pages, to application. Each page had one primary CTA. No page competed with another.
Outcome
9 pages. One consistent system.
Page | Purpose |
|---|---|
Головна | Brand entry, service overview, CTA |
Індивідуальні заняття | Lesson packages, instructor trust signals |
Спліт заняття | New format page, pricing, how it works |
Відео-курси | Course catalog, level selector, pricing |
Розмовний клуб | Club format, registration flow via Telegram bot |
Про нас | Team, story, brand values |
Викладачам | Instructor recruitment page |
Подати заявку | Application form — primary conversion page |
Мій обліковий запис | Student profile / account |
Also delivered: Full brand identity system, custom icon set, mobile adaptive for all 9 pages.
Results
GA4 — Before vs After redesign:
Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
Page views | 3,600 | 12,000 | +233% |
User engagement | 2,900 | 9,600 | +231% |
Session starts | 1,200 | 4,200 | +250% |
First visits | 800 | 2,500 | +212% |
Video progress | 320 | 857 | +168% |
Form starts | — | 397 | tracked for first time |
The homepage — the primary brand entry point — went from 901 views to 3,000+ in the same measurement period. Form starts were now trackable, meaning users were actually reaching and engaging with the conversion page.
Testimonial
The process was smooth. The design perfectly captured our spirit and expectations. Working with Oleksandr was an absolute pleasure! Having a clear brief is one thing, but finding the right person to execute it is everything — and he was a perfect match in every aspect. Huge thanks for the consulting, the right questions, and your constant support. Most importantly, the design completely nailed our company's tone of voice and delivered exactly what we wanted. That level of understanding is priceless!
Yevgen Molokov
Founder ∙ Dehto School