- Usabilla helps us to let the entire company see through the eyes of our customers.
Richard de Vries, Interaction Designer Freelancer
A user centered approach with Usabilla Survey
Richard de Vries is a Dutch interaction designer, who works together with different clients to help them create a better experience for their customers. This case study provides insights into how Richard and his UX team at one of the largest retail banks in the Netherlands, have been supported in their usability analysis by Usabilla Survey.
Richard’s task is to help the bank to ensure that its services are continually adjusted and updated so that they always meet the needs of their customers. In order to achieve this goal, both the usability and overall user experience of all their digital products are of utmost importance. For example, these are the website in general, internet banking, and mobile app. As a freelancer, Richard works together with a UX team of 20 usability professionals and interaction designers to improve and optimize the different user interfaces.
Besides creating an overall exceptional user experience for their digital products, the UX team also wants to present the importance of their work to the rest of the organization. With tools like Usabilla Survey, this is possible. Richard explains: “Usabilla helps us to let the entire company see through the eyes of our customers.”
Richard is also the one who originally introduced Usabilla Survey to the bank. He found out about Usabilla at an UX event a few years back, and has been fond of the tool ever since. Usabilla has become a valuable asset to his UX toolbox. He uses it as design research tool to gather visual feedback on his mockups. “Especially for big organizations, this is the best way to get feedback from their users on a large scale.” (Richard de Vries).
On his latest project, Richard wanted to improve the way payment plans are presented on the website of the bank. He came up with 5 design alternatives, based on input from different colleagues, such as designers, analytics, and marketeers. The designs differed regarding aspects like the presence of a big visual, the position of the call-to-action, an authority reference, prize stickers, wording, etc.
The UX team decided to set up a Usabilla Survey to find out which of their five designs users would like best and why. The survey was promoted on Facebook, where the bank has approximately 45 000 followers. Within four days, 109 people had shared their feedback on the various designs — twice as much as initially hoped for.
Participants were asked to answer the following three questions on all of the five designs:
- Where would you click to continue? (One-click task)
- What do you like on this page? (Multiple clicks & comments possible)
- What would you remove from this page? (Multiple clicks & comments possible)
Besides, participants were shown an overview with all five designs and asked which one appealed to them most. People were asked to vote on their favorite 3 versions.
In total, people placed 1195 points and left 533 notes. The result were detailed insights into why people did or didn’t like specific design elements. A thorough analysis of the results showed that users clearly prefered two out of the five design versions. While the less popular designs were voted for by 17, 20, and 22 percent of the participants, the more popular designs both won with 32 percent. The two winning versions were combined to form the base for a new design alternative.
Usabilla did not only offer overall preferences for certain design versions, but also detailed, qualitative insights into why these versions were prefered. This allowed Richard to identify which parts of a design worked and which didn’t. Even though there was an overall preference for two designs, specific elements from the less popular versions were also identified to hold potential.
For example, the results showed that customers like a clear presentation of prizes, while monthly fees were perceived as much more logical than quarterly fees. This did not only surprise the designer, but also the entire organization. Besides, a clear option to make inquiries was reported as important, and customers prefered the new header style over the older version. Also negative aspects were identified, such as the long menu and the overall feeling that the colors grey and white made the site appear clinical.
Besides a new design variant based on the most popular and most effective elements out of the initial five versions, the survey also led to a detailed feedback report. The report consists of 100 pages and lists all design elements that were rated during the survey together with the user comments and future suggestions. This does not only help Richard and his team for the project at hand, but also offers valuable insights for future design projects.
More than just a survey
During an evaluation meeting, it became clear that Richard and his UX team is enthusiastic about Usabilla. The simplicity of setting up a test and promoting it via social media allows them to quickly gather large quantities of design feedback. The visual nature of the analysis tool allows a detailed and intuitive analysis of the results. Besides, once familiar with the more advanced features, such as integrations with the survey tool Wufoo, you can get even more detailed and valuable feedback. For example, you can filter your results by custom variables, such as age, or whether or not people are familiar with your website.
Thanks to the their open feedback, Usabilla was also able to further improve the tool. The power of Usabilla Survey lies in the visual and interactive nature of the analysis section. In order to offer a more convenient way of sharing results, Usabilla has introduced easy sharing: Enterprise clients can now allow access to their test results with one simple direct link.
Source for header image.