Ever wonder how all the research and customer feedback gathered gets translated into a product experience? This is a soup to nuts approach I've used in the past.

1. Zoe Clelland

2.  Examine the business
 Learn about customers
 Translate to strategy
 Translate to product
 Translate to experience
 Translate to visual design
 Translate to business success

3.  Case Study from online people search company
 What do we offer? Phone numbers!
 Why do people visit us? Um… phone numbers?
 How are we unique in the market? Oh crap.

4.  Mental Model: An explanation in someone's
thought process for how something works in the
real world.
 A mental model is not a design, but rather a
framework by which to make product and design
decisions
 Mental Models include what a person thinks is true
 Mental models allow a person to predict the results of
his actions.
 Many innovative ideas fail to be translated into
successful products because these ideas are
often at odds with prevailing mental models of
users!

5.  We went BIG because we knew so little
 Quantitative online web panel (n=500) consisting of both open and close ended
regarding people search across all mediums
 Qualitative diary studies (n=27) where participants kept records of who what where
and how they searched for people over several weeks plus contextual interviews
(n=10)
 But the results were VERY illuminating!

6.  Three core people search types: Practical, Quest, Research
 Biggest issue to finding someone was too many results returned
 User need more information to be able to identify the “right” person
 Visitors actually used maps more than any other feature (a new use case to us!)
 Preferred contact depended on relationship (phone vs text vs email)
 Users want to be able to own what contact info is available for them and adjust privacy
 Ads are overwhelming and deceiving (we knew that one, but revenue…)

7.  Mission (its all about practical people search and contact information)
 We make it fantastically simple for everyone to find each other and connect
 Positioning (contact and be contacted on your terms)
 Where everybody lives. <Company> is where everybody’s contact information lives and is
the place people go to find and be found. It puts people in control of their own information
and is accessible anytime, anywhere. We work continuously to earn people’s trust and to
create an experience that exceeds expectations.
 Attributes (finding balance between ad revenue and an effective experience)
 Stewards of Trust • Relevant Innovation • Intuitive Experiences • Best Source

8.  Add professional contact data
 Add more contact types (email)
 Add identifying information
 Allow privacy control to listing owners
 Do not take a hit in revenue AND cover the cost of all the work.

10.  Simplify entry, minimize advanced
searching
 Most less critical search types into
tabs (data driven)
 Fewer ads with more impact
 Natural language vs robot voice
 Promotion area for new features
and brand values

12.  Guiding paradigm and user motivation to
“find the right John Smith”
 Added map to help associate general
location and neighborhood
 Added identifiers in a super scannable
format with advanced and intuitive sorting
and filtering
 Rollover algorithms to account for name
and location variations
 Added search fields at top of all pages
(duh) to aid workflow
 Indicators of personal or business contact
info and contact methods available
 Remove ad links from listings, rely on
higher value placements

14.  Guiding paradigm and user is to provide any
and all pertinent information available about
the person
 Added large map by default, easy access to
directions
 Created page patterns to help users
understand content vs ads
 Allow direct scroll thru of listings to support
workflow
 Add engagement features such as “listing
claim”, private contact, and accuracy ratings
 Enforced that only related ad content (e.g.,
public records) can appear aside listing,
clearly delineated

15.  Simple simple simple!
 Dial down colors so as not to
compete with ad content
(rather, distinguish from)
 Clean, modern fonts
 Extra white space and larger
controls to create an “easy”
feel
 Portray site as reputable and
trustworthy (vs spammy link
farm)

16.  Maintained content vs ad
separation
 Created visual language with
custom icons and consistent
usage of color
 Oh the alignment and
wrapping woes…but worth it!

17.  Used green as primary
accent used for WP related
items only
 Emphasis on “claim”
functionality and privacy as
key part of strategy
 Leave opportunity for
friendly humor as part of
brand tenets

18.  Increase in visits per unique visitor by 6%
 Organic increase in page views per visits nearly 17%
 Increase in searches per visit (likely to find and claim personal listing)
 Doubled conversion rate of member services compared to previous integration
 70% reduction in post production interaction bugs compared to previous releases
 Highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) in WP history with gain of over 30 points
 Exceeded lofty revenue goals by 9% (we’re talking millions here!)