An online publisher wanted to redesign their article page to improve user engagement
Research Method: Heuristic Analysis, Co-Creation Workshops, Prototyping
Client: Online Publisher
1 / Background
An online publisher engaged us to increase user engagement among its key products. These products include journals, major reference works, magazines, and library databases.
This publisher wanted to update the article pages for their online library to increase user registration rates and optimize the user registration process.
2 / Method
We started with conducting knowledge transfer sessions with our client to review their current business model, strategy, and customer segmentation.
In order to create the best in-class recommendations, we then conducted a heuristic analysis of 4-6 other publishers and digital content providers, including understanding content layout, user registration, benefits and advertising tactics across each.
The analysis allowed us to identify missing usability elements from our client's site - including easy information recognition, visibility of the system status, and minimalist and consistent designs.
We combined what we learned into recommendations for a co-creation workshop, where frog and our client team came together to ideate on future ideas. From the workshop, we prioritized key design and experience recommendations and built them into high-fidelity wireframes.
Throughout the process of building these wireframes, we engaged our clients and did multiple demos and we encouraged them to provide commentary on these designs.
3 / Research Impact
We provided the client with a heuristic analysis, insights and recommendations, and 10 screen templates for their article pages (both mobile and web experiences).
Our recommended design solution promoted journals with open access, created a better customer experience, and a higher conversion rate for the client across both mobile and desktop experiences.
4 / My Learnings
Bring stakeholders into your research and design process
The more you engage stakeholders in every stage of the research and design process, the more they are willing to act upon your findings. Before we presented to clients at workshops, we sent them a list of our top insights so they could prioritize which ones would be the most thought-provoking for their teams. Similarly, each week, we presented our new designs and allowed our stakeholders to comment throughout, so we could update the designs efficiently. Our stakeholders felt apart of process and their opinions truly mattered.
Think Globally
Even though our client is based in the United States, their customers are global. Design solutions need to take into account of the global consumer. Some of our recommendations were tailored towards East Asian customers whereas others were tailored to the United States. Understanding these cultural nuances can be critical for designing product experiences.