Online marketing tool

Graduation Internship

For a design agency I made an online marketing dashboard within their CMS-system for their clients. Clients currently use Google Analytics, but they find it difficult to use.

During this project I had to use all the knowledge and methods I learned from my previous work and school experience to create a meaningful, intuitive product.

How do you make sure that users know what they can get out of webanalytics in order for them to create meaningful follow-up actions to improve their website?

ROLE

UX Research
Concepting
UX/UI Design
Prototyping and testing

SCOPE

4 months.
Complete design process including five sprints.

USERS

Owners and marketing of small- and mid-sized companies.

PROCESS

In the first sprint, I looked at the user base and the type of people I should design the dashboard for. The online marketeers I worked with came up with all types of problems clients had to deal with. I also did desk and literature research to find common problems in the user base regarding analytics and dashboards and two interviews I conducted with owners of mid-sized company on their use of webanalytics.

Users appear to have two major problems when using (web)analytics. First, the lack of knowledge (especially the use of KPI’s, terminology and interpretation of results) and second the lack of awareness (clients didn’t know how to use analytics and/or didn’t see the point of using it).

A found pattern which I used to create a core loop for the user to go through.

Through the use of desk research, a pattern emerged of a process loop of users using analytics – in which the user (client) interprets the data, tries to find insights, makes decisions and actions based on those insights (changing the website or launching events/promotions) after which a new set of data came up and the process began all over again.

Insights into the userbase resulted in several user base visualisation methods including personas, empathy maps and an user profile which were all updated during the design process.

On the basis of user insights into webanalytics, I drafted five design criteria the final product had to adhere to. Some examples of them are: users need to find valuable insights in a relative short time span, users need to base their follow-up actions to those insights and users of different knowledge levels should be able to use the product.

After that I used multiple diverging and converging concepting methods to come up with concepts including creating mindmaps, longest/shortlist-method, post-it method, sketching and low-fidelity prototyping. Six concepts were created with widely different bases and assumptions, including a personal assistant mobile app, a heavy gamification webapplication, an infographic based e-mail service and a dashboard based on the lay-out and design of the website. Some of the concepts were prototyped and tested with fellow students.

Early prototype one of the six concepts
Post-it method
Post-it method

1 2 3

After doing research in current analytics and design trends, I started creating a first concept. The concept consisted of a dashboard that involved data collected by Google Analytics presented in widgets in a dashboard. Users could set their own goals on their KPI’s to make the data measurable and gamification was used to motivate them to actively use the online marketing tool and reward them for doing so. Micro learning was also a huge part in this first concept. Users would start learning how to use webanalytics during their kick-offs with online marketeers. This created a service design.

TESTS AND PROBLEM SOLVING

A prototype was made for this concept and was tested with an end user and the CEO of RB-Media. A problem I found during the tests was that goals could be set by the user only. But after talks with RB-Media and my colleagues I found out that this was not feasible because goals could only be set by online marketeers in the form of conversion goals. I shifted this aspect of the concept to the “pre-experience” in client meetings. Other feedback was that goals should be more prominently placed in the lay-out.

During the next four sprints, other methods were used to reshape and reframe the concept, including scenarios, storyboards, sitemaps, styleguides, expert reviews, design principles and multiple diagrams. Three other iterations of the concept were made to finetune it according the constantly updated design criteria and problem statement.

Iteration Prototype 2
Iteration Prototype 3
Iteration Prototype 4
Iteration Prototype 5

1 2 3 4

1. Users need to feel confident about what they able to extract from webanalytics.

2. Users must be able to interpret data, find insights and come up with follow up actions in a short timeframe.

3. Users with different knowledge levels must be able to use the tool.

4. The tool must have touchpoints with RB-Media.

FINAL CONCEPT

The final concept was a dashboard which consists of a library of information of all the different KPIs in order to solve the knowledge issue. The user would click on a prominent button where modal dialog would come up with information about certain KPIs and the purpose of them for a successful website. Goals were set during kick-offs with online marketeers and goals could be updated and added by using an intuitive contact form with the tool. This increases the contact between the user and the online marketeer in order to discuss potential insights and follow-up actions. The core-loop discovered in earlier research was also used to create the final prototype tool and was successfully tested. Users found it easy to understand and could find insights and were encouraged to act upon them.

Final concept made in Sketch and prototyped in Flinto

RESULTS

The end result was a final working prototype made in Sketch and Flinto which was tested by users (clients). A design rationale essay on why product solved the stated problems concluded my internship program at RB-Media. Although this was an individual project, I worked together with other designers and developers whom I counted on to help and advice me throughout this journey. I got the chance to be responsible for the creation of a product which would benefit users and clients and I learned a lot from this project.

Online marketing tool

ROLE

SCOPE

USERS

PROCESS

Early prototype one of the six concepts

Post-it method

Post-it method

TESTS AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Iteration Prototype 2

Iteration Prototype 3

Iteration Prototype 4