Prospects: Optimising user experience and conversion rates

Objectives

Prospects gave us the remit to embed lean UX and conversion optimisation practices within their design and development teams, such that they could continue to enhance their site and other digital services without the need to use an external partner like Nexer following the initial programme of work.

What we did

• A data gathering and analysis exercise that enabled us to understand current site analytics and performance, and set site goals that mapped on to business goals for customer conversion and retention.
• Competitor analysis and comprehensive user research through qualitative (interviews) and quantitative (survey) methods to identify core user needs, preferences and barriers that would subsequently inform the design process. We developed lean, actionable user personas based upon this research.
• User Experience design for the new site through a co-design process, bringing together key stakeholders from the business, user representatives and members of the development team to collaboratively design the site, from wireframes and prototypes through to full designs, front-end development and site implementation.
• Iterative testing of designs, prototypes and the full site with real users throughout the design and development, focusing on lean, action-oriented processes to extract the maximum value through short, sharp, continuous testing exercises.
• A series of explicit training and knowledge transfer points throughout the project that enabled the Prospects team to participate and build capability in lean UX and conversion optimisation practices. This included members of the team being actively involved in usability testing sessions, some specific training exercises, and building additional workshops and meetings into the process where we would explain the activities we were conducting and encourage active participation in further work.

What we achieved

The project was hugely successful, particularly in raising the skills and understanding of the in-house team to a level of good practice, whereby they are able to support and further enhance the site (and other sites or applications) in the future.