Usability for grown ups and kids

Overview

The publishers PanMacmillan were committed to develop a new e-commerce website to replace the existing site. The 2 key objectives in the development process were to identify and understand user requirements of the site and to stay ahead of the competition.
A combination of traditional qualitative research coupled with CADinteractive's website and competitor analysis ensured the development of a site which would satisfy the needs of all key stakeholder groups.

Issue

PanMacmillan needed to test an early development of the site to substantiate their initial research and to review a number of branded prototypes to choose the optimal brand direction. It was imperative that the research covered the broad customer base; which meant reviewing the site with a larger than normal group, including children and retired readers.

Solution

In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of all issues, CAD ran a full suite of usability tests; which included card sorts to define the taxonomy, lab-based testing, competitor analysis and quantitative analysis.

The PanMacmillan team and their design agency chose to observe each session in order to have first-hand understanding of the user requirements, which resulted in conflicting opinions between the development team and the Board. Competitor analysis proved very insightful, especially in the children's section, and the card sort helped to considerably reduce the amount of primary and secondary navigation.

Success measures

1. Solid recommendations through research Following an initial usability review, PanMacmillan and their design agency added the recommendations to their final business proposal to the Board. They were able to give clear evidence and examples of user requirements, which were contradictory to early business assumptions.
2. Site improvements for enhanced online experience Consequently a number of major positive additions and changes to the site were made, based on the research conducted by CADinteractive.

Client Testimonial Clare Bennett, Website Consultant, PanMacmillan
"Chris and the team at CAD provided a professional and thorough service, allowing PanMacmillan to gain valuable insight into to the usability of their prototype website.

CAD's research ensured that PanMacmillan were able to identify problematic areas such as content layout (in particular, the right hand channel) and navigation taxonomy (users didn't understand corporate terminology). The research also highlighted that the children's section was a critical area of concern. By testing with children, it was clear this area held no interest for them due to the corporate interface.

As a result, a key business decision was made to develop a separate children's website, which targeted both parents and children via a child-friendly interface.

The knowledge gained through this user-testing enabled PanMacmillan to make key strategic development decisions prior to the full website build and launch – which saved the business both time and money in post-launch amendments."