My Role: UX Lead
Disciplines involved: Information Architecture, Interaction Design, User Research & Testing
Deliverables: Presentations, Requirements, Sketches, Wireframes
CONTEXT
Consumer Reports needed to expand its ratings to many more models by implementing similarity models. Acting as UX Lead, I guided the project all the way from initial discovery through implementation.
THE PROBLEM
When Consumer Reports tests a product, they test a specific model that has a unique model number from the manufacturer. The problem occurred with different variations of a model, each with a different model ID. For example:
Colors. A particular model of a washing machine could come in various colors. Each color could have its own model ID. However, at Consumer Reports only one model (color) would be tested, and the rating would only apply to that specific model color.
Additional variations. Some products would have variations in a brand line that changed the model number. For example, an iPhone could come in different storage sizes (16GB, 32GB, 64GB), each with a different model ID.
The problem was exacerbated when users arrived at Consumer Reports wanting to get ratings for a specific model they saw in the store or online. They ran the risk of getting “no results found” in their search.
I was asked to analyze the problem, offer recommendations on how to best proceed, and design the solution.
THE SOLUTION
Stakeholder interviews
My solution began by conducting stakeholder interviews with people who had a deep understanding of the issue. I met with leadership from both the technical (product testing) and editorial teams to listen to their concerns and ideas.
Competitive analysis
After interviewing stakeholders, I conducted a competitive analysis of other product-oriented sites to ascertain how they were dealing with similar issues. Doing this helped me break the problem into themes we could focus on. For example, one theme was how to best handle search, and another was how to present similar models on a tested model page.
IDEAS AND PRESENTATION
Next, I prepared my presentation to leadership with the following focus points:
What I learned from my competitive analysis
How I saw the problem being broken down both from a design and technical perspective
Recommendations from the UX team showing design concepts
Here is the presentation I gave on Similar Models:
Wireframes
After the presentation, I secured buy-in from leadership for my recommendations on how to proceed with the project. I then moved to the wireframe stage, where I directed my team to work out the details of the wireframes under my supervision.
Here is sample of the wireframes that were delivered by my team. You can also download all of them them as a PDF.
User Testing
User testing was conducted on the wireframes we created in order to find out how well users understood the designs. Testing was completed through one-on-one interviews that were moderated by the Market Research team. The designs were updated based on our findings.
Build and launch
Once the designs were handed over to IT, I was actively involved in the build process. This included:
Model page changes
Ratings chart changes
Updates to the search engine
Taxonomy changes, which included using an outside data feed that was used for mapping the numerous electronics models to our testing model.
Outcomes
This entire process brought a highly workable solution to a complex problem at Consumer Reports—and a solution that could be brought to bear on other, similar issues.