From its inception, the product had been designed and developed based on the assumptions of the senior team and developers. This resulted in a product that failed to meet user requirements which impacted on business performance. I was brought in by the newly appointed Product Director to help the business align with their user base and redesign the digital product.
Lead UX
Founded in 2005, Rated People is the UK’s leading marketplace to connect homeowners with tradesmen.
Engage with tradesmen to better understand their business activities surrounding homeowner acquisition and growth to identify requirements and opportunities.
Engage with homeowners to identify adoption barriers and the model of engagement for different job types.
Identify future opportunities to best leverage tech.
Align the business with their user base so to promote a customer centric approach to product development.
Specific KPI objectives included reducing churn, increasing volume of projects posted, increasing tradesmen registration, and encouraging homeowners to rate tradesmen on completed jobs.
Engage with homeowners to identify adoption barriers and the model of engagement for different job types.
Identify future opportunities to best leverage tech.
Align the business with their user base so to promote a customer centric approach to product development.
Specific KPI objectives included reducing churn, increasing volume of projects posted, increasing tradesmen registration, and encouraging homeowners to rate tradesmen on completed jobs.
The challenge
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An extensive expert review of the existing platform to identify and highlight key service design breakdowns and user interface problems.
Review of competitor and analogous sites to identify potential user flows, features, and functionality to incorporate into the redesign.
The findings were played back to the business employing a storytelling approach to help them empathise with the end users, and to highlight the need for a user-centric redesign.
Review of competitor and analogous sites to identify potential user flows, features, and functionality to incorporate into the redesign.
The findings were played back to the business employing a storytelling approach to help them empathise with the end users, and to highlight the need for a user-centric redesign.
Review & competitor analysis
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A key requirement to move the redesign forward was to have the business develop a better understanding of their user base. A number of methods including diary studies and contextual research for persona development were employed in order to develop a better understanding as to how the user groups engaged with each other, and to better understand their requirements and possible barriers to adoption.
Senior team members were involved in the research and analysis process. Making them part of this process ensured that the findings were adopted by the heads of departments so to promote a user-centric ethos.
Senior team members were involved in the research and analysis process. Making them part of this process ensured that the findings were adopted by the heads of departments so to promote a user-centric ethos.
Align business with users
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End-to-end flow of marketplace engagement outlined, highlighting key touch points and actions developed in conjunction with tech team members, senior team members, and BAs.
Information architecture drawn up and iterated through online user testing.
Wireframes designed in Omnigraffle and developed into a mid-fidelity interactive prototype in Axure for user testing. Designs evolved through user testing and engagement with CFO and CMO to explore options to maximise KPIs.
Information architecture drawn up and iterated through online user testing.
Wireframes designed in Omnigraffle and developed into a mid-fidelity interactive prototype in Axure for user testing. Designs evolved through user testing and engagement with CFO and CMO to explore options to maximise KPIs.
Service design / IA / Wireframes
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Prototypes were tested through multiple rounds of user testing with end users on a one-to-one basis and refined. Key stakeholders in the project were involved in viewing the sessions to ensure that all were aligned with the findings and that resolutions were quickly agreed upon. The final designs were passed to a graphic designer to ensure brand alignment.
Test & Iterate
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Objectives
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So to promote buy in from a sceptical senior team a cascading approach was employed where the findings from the previous stage would kick-start and feed into the next.
Approach
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Review & Competitor analysis
Highlight key user experience issues, and identify possible functionality from competitor and analogous sites.
Align business with users
Contextual research with users to develop a set of personas to guide the design phase.
Service design / Wireframes
End-to-end flow outlined highlighting key engagement points. Wireframes designed for user testing.
Test & Iterate
Successive rounds of user testing and iteration of interactive prototypes.
Outcomes & learnings
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ratepeople.com
Along with improving KPIs a key success of the project was to have the business adopt and continue to employ a user centred approach to product development.
A key learning from the project was the focus on KPIs over the quality of jobs being posted by homeowners which was impacting on the volume of leads purchased by tradesmen. This was addressed in a subsequent project that involved developing ‘job specific’ forms to capture homeowner requirements to replace the generic, one size fits all job form.
A key learning from the project was the focus on KPIs over the quality of jobs being posted by homeowners which was impacting on the volume of leads purchased by tradesmen. This was addressed in a subsequent project that involved developing ‘job specific’ forms to capture homeowner requirements to replace the generic, one size fits all job form.
+220%
+65%
+150%
PROJECTS POSTED
Project leadership
Expert review
Wireframing
Stakeholder management
C-suite engagement
Usability testing
Requirements capture
Interactive prototyping
Persona development
User journeys
Project planning
Stakeholder workshops
Contextual research
DLUX |+44 (0) 7968 074014 | damien.livingston@gmail.com
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