Media & Publishing
Sidewalk Dog Media
Sidewalk Dog’s directory of local dog-friendly places and events serves as a trusted resource for its users.
Interactive Design | Workflow Development | Prototyping | Customer Research | Media & Publishing
The Opportunity
Sidewalk Dog wanted to understand how users experienced and interacted with their site in order to stimulate growth, add value for subscribers and increase site retention.
THE APPROACH
We began with a heuristic review of their current site analyzing desktop and mobile patterns, researching other directory patterns, and digging in to site analytics. Armed with this analysis, we created a happy path prototype that applied our recommendations: design for mobile retention and decrease bounce rate.
The Approach
The prototype was designed to enable users to be specific with their searches and intuitively steer through the site on mobile devices with direct navigation.
With the Sidewalk Dog team, we recruited 12 users for recorded A/B testing.
We developed an outline for the user test which included two parts:
An informal one-on-one interview to understand user perceptions and habits with the Sidewalk Dog site;
A usability test where we observe users completing a sequence of tasks and assign a straightforward pass/fail.
We observed group A users complete the tasks and interview on the current Sidewalk Dog site. While group B users completed the same tasks with the prototype. Group A users took longer to navigate and digest site information compared to group B users.
Current menu (left) has too many options for users. Prototype (right) has fewer options making it more efficient.
Current map (left) is overwhelming for the user and results are blocked. Prototype (right) brings user to a landing page of search results.
Our Observations
We reviewed our user study findings, as well as our heuristic review, and site metrics to create a summary analysis and recommendations for the client.
Sidewalk Dog has successfully positioned themselves as a dog-friendly expert, and has built trust with their users as the ultimate resource for dog-friendly places, events, rescues, tips and health.
However, based on the heuristic review, google analytics, and user testimony, site visitors are entering the site to find a dog-friendly place, to read an article from the newsletter, or to explore an event posted on facebook or instagram. They are then exiting the site.
The Result
More specifically, we observed in the user study that emails and social channels are successfully funneling medium to low frequency users to the site, but they are then exiting the site.
The current search options are overwhelming for users. In order to retain users, search capabilities needed to be simplified and more direct.
3/4 of Sidewalk Dog users interact with their site on a mobile device, therefore a mobile friendly website needs to be prioritized.
These summary recommendations provided user-based direction for their next design phase.
Check below to see mobile comparison of the current Sidewalk Dog site and our prototype.
Site Construction underway.
Current Sidewalk Dog site on mobile
Prototype Sidewalk Dog site on mobile
