A redesign to improve retention and content discoverability
SOLO DESIGNER
"The site layout is too confusing and not retaining users"
Metrics showed the existing Research Portal lacked 'stickiness' and it was assumed that content was not easily discoverable and this was contributing towards the problem.
When defining the project outcomes mind maps were use to uncover hidden goals, ideas and assumptions. Key assumptions and ideas to take into research to validate / invalidate.
The main assumptions were:
The site layout is too confusing
Users are struggling to find content
Users would read more articles with more intuitive layout
For the first time in the product team, I conducted a card sorting exercise to arrange and inform a better information architecture and also conducted dozens of user interviews to understand user journeys and pains points.
There were some big insights from user interviews that affected design and overall UX strategy:
Users stated they rarely cared for the homepage after their first visit
Seeing data visually was impactful in peaking interest
Saving reports to read later was an essential part of users workflow
Although these insights were self-reported they allowed me to distill the following How might we statement:
“How might we showcase our content and provide an intuitive UX to discovering and saving reports for later reading?”
I evaluated and assigned each section of the homepage a more deliberate purpose to provide more value to first time and returning users. Sections were varied in both in layout and also content style. The homepage was divided into sections:
Featured and latest articles
Daily recurrent articles
Slider showcase - with visual previews
Article feed by category
Newsletter CTA
Articles by authors
The sections were designed to be distinct and compliment each other but they could also be analysed for performance and tweaked individually.
Final designs
Takeaways
👀 Take a look for yourself → See the live site!
Results
The initial metrics have shown that weekly active users has increased by 80-100% across user tiers however further analysis is required to understand how and why user behaviour has changed.
Learnings
In retrospect I would have been interested to get feedback earlier on from the various new homepage sections to save on the development effort required to implement them in full.
Micro experiments using A/B testing or similar would have provided fascinating insights to increase our conviction and focus efforts.