Improving Product Finder & Site Search
A 3 month long follow up project after updating Lumen’s Product Finder and Site Search pages. Using user research and UX strategy to identify the problems and determine the proper steps for improvement.
My Role
Remote Lead User Researcher,
UX Strategist
Project Duration
3 - 4
month project
Area of Focus
Site Searching, Product Finding, & Filters
Synopsis
This project comes after updating Lumen.com site search and product finder pages, with the goal of finding which improvements worked and which didn't. Then use those findings to determine what needs to be changed, followed by prioritizing which solutions could be done based off of the resources and goals of the team.
If you want to jump ahead to view the background, different iterations or final design you can click on their respective links below and it would take you straight to that process.
1. Background
2. The Research
3. Research Results
4. Prioritizing Solutions
Previously, the Site Search and Product Finder was not up to standards based off of user research and competitive analysis.
What was done?
Improved tools to make filters more robust and convenient to use
Users would have the tools necessary to narrow down the search based off of their preferences.
Internal metadata change, to enhance the search results
Users are able to get the searches that they expected, and not some page that is unrelated to what they are typed in.
After 6 months we came back to see how has the improved Site Search and Product Finder performed.
What do we want to learn?
What are we facing?
What we ended up doing?
Need to test two pages within set time?
Focus on the filter and search tools, & keep the user from going on tangents.
Not enough moderated testers?
Added unmoderated testers into the test.
Need personas?
Ask them about their expectations and their previous experience.
Need to deliver the analysis in short time?
Limit the test to desktop only, and follow up with mobile.
Example moderated questions:
Here are some example questions that we created for for the moderated test.
Introduction
In a few words how would you describe your job role?
When do you find yourself using pages like Product Finder and Site Search?
What do you expect when using pages like Product Finder and Site Search?
Following the user's journey (Questions used for both pages):
Send them the page link*
Scenario: Imagine that you are trying to find a specific product that would help improve your company's cyber security. How would you proceed?
What is your overall experience with the page?
Does the page meet your expectation? Why or why not?
What features do you like or dislike? Please explain.
When we moved to unmoderated
Not enough moderated test, we had to conduct unmoderated test to fill up the required research quota, which means we had to adjust the questions as well.
Switching from a more open ended questions
<Introduce Scenario> How would you proceed?
Does the page meet your expectations?
To more direct questions with hard limits.
<Introduce Scenario> How would you proceed, through this page? Please do not leave this page.
Does the page that you experience, meet your expectations?
The results? It meets expectations!
These positives were found based off of what the MAJORITY tester's said and what was observed on BOTH pages.
"filters...detailed, I can find the category that matches with my industry."
Detailed filters allow the users to easily narrow down their preference
"The results matches with what I typed in."
Results a responsive and its what they expect when using the search or filters tools.
"These function the same as other providers' websites that I used."
Overall it works the same as other websites that use the same system.
Other positive responses
Site Search Page:
The search bar
The search bar is large and easily identified, its convenient to use, and the previous suggestions are nice additions for backtracking.
Actual Interactions that the devs can interact with.
Have the developers play around the module itself so that they can use the module in real time.
However, the devils in the details
These issues were found based off of what the MAJORITY tester's said and what was observed on BOTH pages.
"...why does it decrease when i click on more categories?"
Testers expects the results to increase the more filters they choose.
"I clicked on Security, but it didn't do anything."
Testers express confusion in how the category buttons function.
"Why show filters that have contribute "0" to results?"
Testers rather have filters with "0" results hidden than take up space.
Other specific issues that were expressed
Site Search Page:
Results take too long to load
Based on the tester's expectations, they expect quick response times from especially from a network company.
Product Finder Page:
Product tiles not enough info
Some testers expressed the information provided is not enough for them to make decision.
Site Search Page:
Filters are too broad
A couple of testers have expressed confusion as to what they are doing.
Product Finder & Site Search
Customizing results
Few testers expressed they want to customize how many results are shown in at a time, instead of clicking on the "Show More"
We also have info to create a persona
Proposed Solutions:
Based off of what we see from the testing results and persona, here are the improvements that I presented:
Major changes that are high priority based on user's experience.
Additional changes that are good addition but not needed.
What I learned:
Show the stats of the modules.
Easy for the developers to follow especially when when it comes to building a complicated module.
Visuals and videos can carry more information
Wireframes can still be mistaken as the final design.
Like testers if you give them the functional specs using the final design comp of the module, it will cause the developers confusion if the design changes.
As it has helped our developers out a lot, since they now have an exact reference decreasing the amount of times they have to visually check with the designers.
What I can improve:
More indicators that this is not a visual design spec.
Developers still have a hard time discerning the functional spec as UX specific spec instead of visual design spec.
Maintain collaboration with visual designers
Since there can be specific specifications the the visual design spec might have that would confuse the developers of the functional spec doesn't.
Remain low fi wireframes to avoid last minute redos.
Since visual designs keep changing, we want to avoid having to replace all the images and videos again.
Have everyone be on board with the design before making the spec.
To avoid constantly changing the spec and also have the spec be out of date simply due to last minute changes.