optimizing very, very long lists
A challenge for a site with close to sixty million active members is presenting meaningful lists from which users can find their old friends and classmates. After carefully studying audience behavior, a cleaner, more helpful design was created. The result (see "After" screen capture below), is currently winning in test on several key performance indicators:
- Bounce rate reduced 55%
- Exit rate reduced 34%
- Paid membership conversion lifted 15%
- Targeted UGC lifted 22%
Scroll beyond the before/after images for a description of targeted needs and successful changes.
Before  |
After  |
The old version of the school member list ("Before" screen capture, below) provided a great deal of information and interface control. On the surface this sounds like a good thing, but for a user seeking to find an old friend out of a list of hundreds or thousands it was overwhelming. Additionally, the browsing experience took users to completely new pages, making casual investigation of profiles laborious and time-consuming.
In the newer design, shown below to the left, several changes were made:
- The generic "Actions" column became a "Contact" column. Instead of an option to either friend or send a private email, where both actions required a certain level of emotional investment from a perhaps years-separated friend, the focus was changed to reconnecting. One option is private email (should the sender feel confident enough), the other a casual public note.
- Featured users associated with specific types of information were highlighted at the top of the page.
- Some functionality was removed (display of all UGC indicators reduced to most recent; first name sort removed), to reduce confusion and indecision.
- Last but certainly not least, we optimized the profile preview pane. This tool, conceived by one of Classmates' talented IAs, greatly reduced the clicks and tedious nature of member list browsing. It allowed users to see top level information about a list member, as well as interact with them. We developed and refined the business logic behind a rotating feed of connectivity/activity suggestions, increasing user-generated content from this location.
Please note: in true Scrum (Agile) fashion, this result was a collaboration between developers, information architecture, design, and editorial, with me as site experience product owner setting requirements such as Replace low-response "friend this user" icon and link with "bulletin boards" icon and link, and change category to Contact (copy to be determined by Editorial). Changes were made over several sprints (short development periods), with me pulling data and providing analysis and strategy for optimization.
what, where, & when
User Experience Manager
United Online (Classmates.com, MemoryLane.com)
Seattle, Washington
2008-2011
keywords
Social network, social media, SNA (social network analysis), IA (information architecture), UX, Scrum (Agile), UX strategy, content strategy, usability, SEO (search engine optimization), user-centered design, taxonomy, C2C, B2C, Visio, Omniture SiteCatalyst, Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics, data warehouse, web analytics, Rally, Pajek, Microsoft Office (especially PowerPoint, Excel), presentations, road map, competitive research.
