Redesigned the entire user experience for Lytx's (recently acquired for $500m) online platform. Lead generation increased shortly after launch!
“We recently had the lessons learned with the client and I wanted to pass along the kudos that your work received. They cited the discovery interviews, usability testing, UX workshops, and wireframes as what went well in the project.” Project Manager, Red Door
Corporate websites often reflect an organization's internal structure because teams want a digital flag-post for their stuff. This seems intuitive but it forces users to muddle through navigation that isn’t tailored to their needs. After auditing the existing design, I found clear indicators of a company-centric site structure:
A web analytics and SEO audit revealed a pattern I didn't expect: product detail pages were viewed less frequently, and had a higher bounce rate, in comparison to seemingly less important content. Why was this happening? Website visitors used very specific language to find Lytx — that language wasn’t always on the site — and there were multiple paths to the find same content. The UX was either so good that users found what they needed and left or there wasn’t an obvious next step.
The team thought fleet managers would use company size, industry and job role to find products. After all, sales and marketing created these customer segments! I wanted to verify this approach so I created a proposal to justify the need for user research. Everyone agreed that real user feedback would get us closer to the right navigation design. This resulted in two distinct navigation prototypes that test participants used during usabilty testing.
What information do people use to evaluate a service like Lytx? To answer this question, I found fleet managers that were actively looking for a fleet management solution. During a one-hour research session, I asked potential customers about their information seeking process and had them complete a similar task using a prototype. Observing how fleet managers navigated the product line was the first step to reorganizing Lytx's site structure.
Research participants said they liked that Lytx's services were grouped by company size and industry, but they never used those options. They didn't want to self-identify because it was a barrier between them and the content that solved their problem.
Everything came together via a responsive prototype to illustrate the intended user experience. Playing around in the browser made it easier to feel the flow from page-to-page; it forced me to consider the design constraints on a smaller viewport.
There are varying opinions about the usefulness of detailed prototyping, but it enabled me to communicate a holistic vision. In retrospect, the polished nature of my prototype didn't give the visual design team room to explore alternative concepts.
