User Experience Case Study

Below are two case studies to assist you in understanding the potential beneifits to your website of using user experience analysis techniques. Feel free to contact us if you want to know more about our UEA service.

A Manufacturer

We carried out a review of the website of a major manufacturer using our UEA approach: Interview - Evaluation - Consultation - Report.

The usability review and interviews with actual users gave us the following main findings:

• the site was bland and there were too few graphics
• the homepage did not engage the users, nor did it convey what information the site contained nor how it was structured
• the hierarchy of information was not consistent, and actually hindered users from finding information
• the dropdown menus on the main navigation bar confused users
• the design of the information bulletin .pdfs, on the other hand, was seen as funky and appealing.

We made the following recommendations based on the findings, thus providing a basis for the site redesign:

• change the Homepage to clearly show the site’s intended audience and the types of information the site contains
• change the site navigation, so the main menu choices were reduced to six, and introduce a second level menu on each page
• use the look of the ‘funky’ .pdfs as a starting point for the redesign of the site’s overall bland look
• add a ‘search’ function in the top banner, to supplement the site navigation.

The client was impressed by the brief action-oriented report based on actual user experience. Our recommendations provided a roadmap by which the site could be remodelled to improve its usefulness in achieving business goals.

A Consumer Brands Group

We carried out a review of the website of a major consumer brands group using our UEA approach: Interview - Evaluation - Consultation - Report Because we were concerned about aspects of the site’s visual language, we also showed the test users the company’s latest annual report, and asked questions about its main messages.

The usability review and interviews with actual users gave us the following main findings:

• the site did not present users with a clear message regarding the intended audience and purpose. The most confusing part of the site was the home page. As one test user said: “The information on the home page doesn’t fit together, it doesn’t make sense.”
• the site did not show the human face of the group, nor did it depict the brands in everyday situations in real people’s lives
• navigation was inconsistent and confusing:
  - top navigation is not sufficiently prominent, appears ‘greyed out’
  - left side navigation appears unpredictably, and the pop-out menus obscure page content
  - some top of page image banners are clickable, and some are not.
• some top level headings did not describe content clearly enough
• the information architecture was imbalanced, hiding important information at a lower level of page than users expected.

We made the following recommendations based on the findings, thus providing a basis for the site redesign:

• redesign the home page to show key messages such as market goals, and share price performance
• make the top navigation more prominent and more intuitive
• give each section a front page that explains its contents, and a left side navigation menu that allows users to move to any page in that section
• use more visual language/graphical diagrams to show how the company works, such as those used in the latest Annual Report.

The report was brief and action-oriented, and included test data as an appendix where it could be accessed by the client as needed. Our recommendations were focussed on achieving business goals, and included next steps for mock-up pages and further user testing to get design feedback before committing to an expensive redesign.