So, one of my maths teachers runs Lucky Maths, and I thought I'd take a gentle poke at how it could be improved. Not in a mean-spirited way – Albert seems like a genuinely good teacher who's doing important work making maths accessible to students who struggle with it. But as someone who's spent entirely too much time thinking about websites and user experience, I couldn't help but notice a few... opportunities.
The Good Stuff First
Before I get into the nitty-gritty, let me say that the heart of this website is absolutely in the right place. Albert's approach to teaching – using ratio tables and bar modelling to make foundation-level maths actually make sense – is brilliant. The testimonials are properly moving too. Paige talks about using the techniques in everyday life, Mr Cairns mentions his son wanting to pursue A-level maths, and Bev describes overcoming her fear and anxiety around the subject.
That's what education should be about, isn't it? Not just passing exams, but actually understanding things in a way that sticks and builds confidence.
The website immediately speaks to its audience with questions like "Do you hate maths? Do you think everyone else is better than you?" It's direct, relatable, and doesn't faff about pretending that maths anxiety isn't a real thing that affects loads of people.
The Wix Problem
Right, so here's where things get a bit sticky. Looking at the HTML, it's clear this is built on Wix. Now, I get it – not everyone wants to spend their evenings wrestling with code like some of us do. Wix promises ease and convenience, and for someone who just wants to get a site up quickly, I understand the appeal.
But here's the thing about Wix (and I say this with all due respect to anyone using it): it's like trying to perform surgery with oven gloves on. Sure, you can do it, but you're going to run into some fundamental limitations that affect the user experience.
As someone who much prefers coding sites from scratch – you can probably tell from my own website and how I've written about building things properly – I find these platform limitations particularly frustrating when they get in the way of good UX.
The Sticky Header Situation
Let me tell you about the elephant in the room: that header.
A sticky header, for those who haven't encountered the term, is a navigation bar that stays fixed at the top of your screen as you scroll. In theory, it's meant to help users navigate without having to scroll back up. In practice, when implemented poorly, it becomes a digital albatross.
Lucky Maths has a sticky header that consumes roughly half the viewport on most screens. Half. Imagine trying to read a book where someone's holding their hand over the bottom half of every page. That's what browsing this site feels like. You're constantly scrolling because you can only see a tiny sliver of content at any given moment.
On mobile devices, it's even worse – the header probably takes up 60-70% of the screen space, leaving you with a letterbox view of the actual content. It's like trying to watch a film through a keyhole.
The Mobile Experience (Or Lack Thereof)
Speaking of mobile, this site doesn't implement proper responsive design principles at all. What this means in plain English is that the site doesn't adapt its layout for different screen sizes. It just... shrinks. Everything becomes tiny and difficult to interact with.
Given that loads of parents and students browse on their phones, this is a bit of a problem. When someone's trying to quickly check your rates or read testimonials while they're on the bus, they shouldn't need a magnifying glass to do it.
This is one of those areas where coding your own site (or at least having more control over the design) really pays off. With proper CSS frameworks like Tailwind and responsive design principles built into something like SvelteKit, you can create layouts that work beautifully across devices. Wix... well, Wix does what Wix does.
The Typography Tango
The text on this site has that distinctive "everything's the same size and weight" look that screams website builder. There's no real hierarchy – headings don't look dramatically different from body text, and everything kind of blends together into one big wall of words.
Good typography isn't just about looking pretty (though that helps). It's about guiding the reader's eye, making information scannable, and reducing cognitive load. When someone visits your tutoring site, they're probably already a bit anxious about maths. The last thing they need is to struggle with reading your website too.
What I'd Do Differently
If I were rebuilding this (and trust me, the urge to fork it and rewrite it in SvelteKit is strong), here's what I'd focus on:
Ditch the massive header. Make it slim, elegant, and functional. Maybe 10-15% of viewport height, maximum.
Embrace proper responsive design. Mobile-first approach, proper breakpoints, layouts that actually work on phones.
Create visual hierarchy. Big headings for sections, readable body text, proper spacing. Let the content breathe.
Optimise the images. Those stock photos are doing their best, but they're probably slowing everything down. Proper compression and modern formats would help.
Add some interactivity. Examples of those ratio tables and bar models in action, like something in JavaScript.
The Human Element
Here's the thing that frustrates me most about this situation: Albert is clearly a talented teacher doing important work. I can personally vouch for this – his methods have genuinely helped me understand concepts that I'd struggled with for years and now I'm just barely under a passing grade (and it is borderline driving me crazy). The testimonials on the site aren't just marketing fluff; they reflect real experiences that students like me have had. Albert's approach to breaking down complex problems using ratio tables and bar modelling isn't just pedagogically sound, it actually works. That deserves a digital presence that reflects the quality of his teaching.
When good teachers are let down by poor web design, it's not just about aesthetics – it's about accessibility. How many struggling students or worried parents have visited this site and clicked away because it was difficult to use? How many potential connections have been lost because the user experience didn't match the quality of the education?
A Broader Point About Website Builders
This isn't really about Albert or Lucky Maths specifically – it's about how website builders like Wix can be simultaneously helpful and limiting. They lower the barrier to getting online, which is genuinely good. But they also impose constraints that can hurt user experience in ways that aren't immediately obvious to non-technical users.
As someone who's spent way too much time thinking about how websites should work, I find these limitations particularly galling. When you code your own site, you have complete control over every aspect of the user experience – including accessibility features that website builders often overlook or implement poorly. When you use a website builder, you're stuck with whatever decisions the platform made for you, and unfortunately, accessibility is rarely their priority.
Final Thoughts
I genuinely hope Albert finds some of these observations useful. The work he's doing – making maths accessible and building confidence in struggling students – is incredibly valuable. It deserves a website that does it justice.
And if anyone reading this is thinking about building their own educational site, maybe consider learning a bit of HTML and CSS instead of reaching for the website builder. Your users (and your content) will thank you for it. I recommend to take a crack at the Svelte tutorial. It can help jump start a web developmental journey, if you are so willing. No shame on not, of course.