CASE STUDY:
THE BUSINESS VALUE OF UX
THE BUSINESS VALUE OF UX
INTRODUCTION
I completed a User Experience Design certificate program at SMU in the summer of 2020. From day 1 of the program, I realized just how valuable UX frameworks would be for any organization to integrate. My organization did not have an in-house user experience team, and it wasn't fully realized the business advantage that comes from adopting user experience strategies. I started thinking of ways I could show the value of what I had learned and how it could fit into our systems and processes—not only for digital product design, but within our marketing team operations.
I decided to give my organization a taste of one method in the UX toolbox. A member of our digital marketing team informed me that 84.5% of our website visitors are regularly bouncing off the "Everyday Menu" page (which at the time was a quote/locations page as shown below). This was the first thing a user views when they clicked "Everyday Menu."
What was obvious to me and not obvious to everyone, was a menu accessibility issue and no guidance from the system to get visitors to a menu, which was likely a major role in the drop-off rate. I could imagine how users who aren't familiar with the site or brand, would feel. They might be wondering: Am I on the right page? Did I click the wrong button? Why do I need to enter my address? I'm lost. Where is the menu?! This was the hypothesis I needed to validate, along with finding low hanging fruit for better usability.
I completed a User Experience Design certificate program at SMU in the summer of 2020. From day 1 of the program, I realized just how valuable UX frameworks would be for any organization to integrate. My organization did not have an in-house user experience team, and it wasn't fully realized the business advantage that comes from adopting user experience strategies. I started thinking of ways I could show the value of what I had learned and how it could fit into our systems and processes—not only for digital product design, but within our marketing team operations.
I decided to give my organization a taste of one method in the UX toolbox. A member of our digital marketing team informed me that 84.5% of our website visitors are regularly bouncing off the "Everyday Menu" page (which at the time was a quote/locations page as shown below). This was the first thing a user views when they clicked "Everyday Menu."
What was obvious to me and not obvious to everyone, was a menu accessibility issue and no guidance from the system to get visitors to a menu, which was likely a major role in the drop-off rate. I could imagine how users who aren't familiar with the site or brand, would feel. They might be wondering: Am I on the right page? Did I click the wrong button? Why do I need to enter my address? I'm lost. Where is the menu?! This was the hypothesis I needed to validate, along with finding low hanging fruit for better usability.
The pandemic had just started to peak and our reliance on digital sales became crucial when dining rooms were closing down in various municipalities nationwide. Considering our already fast paced culture, and the business' focus on meeting short term goals, I needed to demonstrate a practical UX method that is feasible, compelling and worth the investment to get buy-in from leadership.
Through my own volunteer project, I planned and conducted moderated remote usability testing sessions with our live desktop website. Doing this this would reveal a different kind of data: qualitative data-so we know not just the what of data, but the why. For the purposes of this study, assessing and testing the website as it was—would be more valuable and pertinent data vs testing a prototype. Being just a team of 1, this allowed me to focus on planning and recruiting my testers.
Through my research, planning, moderation, analysis, I was able to validate the need for this study, find patterns of pain points, and discover the major barrier to ordering—that if resolved—could multiply our ordering rate for web visitors.
Through my own volunteer project, I planned and conducted moderated remote usability testing sessions with our live desktop website. Doing this this would reveal a different kind of data: qualitative data-so we know not just the what of data, but the why. For the purposes of this study, assessing and testing the website as it was—would be more valuable and pertinent data vs testing a prototype. Being just a team of 1, this allowed me to focus on planning and recruiting my testers.
Through my research, planning, moderation, analysis, I was able to validate the need for this study, find patterns of pain points, and discover the major barrier to ordering—that if resolved—could multiply our ordering rate for web visitors.
“A well-designed user interface could raise your website's conversion rate by up to 200%, and a better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400%.”
-Forrester
“Following a usability redesign, websites increase desired metrics by 135% on average.”
-Neilson Norman Group
MY PROCESS
RESEARCH
To decide what I would specifically test, I spent time researching a benchmarking usability study on UX of 6 prominent fast casual restaurant websites. measuringu.com/ux-restaurant/ This study was conducted by MeasuringU—a software development firm that specializes in user research and experience design consulting, servicing brands such as Google, Walmart, McAfee, Synchrony Bank, Lenovo, ADP and Dropbox.
In the study were the top 3 reasons a visitor will visit a restaurant website, none of which are surprising but useful to quantify and rank.
In visiting a restaurant website:
These top reasons became the basis for the 3 tasks I would test on, which were:
My second task was designed based on the needs middle class demographic, those who are budget conscious and sensible, looking for value in shopping and needing to save time by ordering online. Through my own testing of our site, I found additional usability issues with ordering specific menu items, which helped me devise a scenario to see if it was discovered. But I didn't outright tell a user what to order, because I wanted to see if they could easily find what they were looking for based on menu naming conventions. Most new visitors are often unable to get those answers or assistance in a real life scenario.
In the study were the top 3 reasons a visitor will visit a restaurant website, none of which are surprising but useful to quantify and rank.
In visiting a restaurant website:
- 69% visit with the intent to order food
- 51% visit to view the menu
- 23% visit to find a store location
These top reasons became the basis for the 3 tasks I would test on, which were:
- View the menu
- Look for a meal to feed a group of 8 with an $80 budget, adding item(s) to cart, and then starting the checkout process.
- Finding a location near a place they are unfamiliar with in a scenario I provide
My second task was designed based on the needs middle class demographic, those who are budget conscious and sensible, looking for value in shopping and needing to save time by ordering online. Through my own testing of our site, I found additional usability issues with ordering specific menu items, which helped me devise a scenario to see if it was discovered. But I didn't outright tell a user what to order, because I wanted to see if they could easily find what they were looking for based on menu naming conventions. Most new visitors are often unable to get those answers or assistance in a real life scenario.
RECRUITING THE RIGHT TESTERS
I started by seeking out extreme users through a screener survey on linkedin, which got over 140 participants. I selected 10 users:
I sought out two extremes, to see if there was a relationship to savviness and how friction-free the tasks were for them. And by solving for each extreme group's notable pain points, this is would solve for a broad range of users in between.
- 10 frequently ordered food online via a web browser
- 5 of which considered themselves poor to average on digital savviness
- 5 of which considered themselves digitally savvy experts/professionals
- All testers chosen have never been to our website to capture more realistic first-time interactions
I sought out two extremes, to see if there was a relationship to savviness and how friction-free the tasks were for them. And by solving for each extreme group's notable pain points, this is would solve for a broad range of users in between.
The 2 highest ranking benefits they valued were on convenience and saving time, validating the need for a more user-friendly, friction-free ordering experience.
TESTING SESSIONS
Using Steve Krug's template script as a guide, I moderated each session, for roughly 20 to 30 minutes per tester. I am providing an insightful clip for each task with links below to access released recordings of select testing sessions. In addition to tasks, testers were asked to evaluate the home page and do a narrative of what they saw, liked, didn't like, questions they had, etc. After testers completed the session, they were sent a SUS questionnaire to complete which was later used to calculate their SUS (System Usability Score).
TASK 1: View the menu
CLIP
Tester: Graphic designer and animator. This tester is a power user, who regularly orders most of her meals via websites from restaurants such as Chili's and Texas Roadhouse. She struggles to find the menu and is routed to the catering menu from previous actions she took, thinking she has found the everyday menu, but hasn't. She thought the buffet were the catering menu, not the entire page, as there is no mention of catering on the catering menu.
Tester: Graphic designer and animator. This tester is a power user, who regularly orders most of her meals via websites from restaurants such as Chili's and Texas Roadhouse. She struggles to find the menu and is routed to the catering menu from previous actions she took, thinking she has found the everyday menu, but hasn't. She thought the buffet were the catering menu, not the entire page, as there is no mention of catering on the catering menu.
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TASK 1 FINDINGS
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TASK 2: Scenario: You have a budget of $80 and need to feed 8 people, and are looking to see if there's anything convenient to order for groups and add to your cart. Whatever you add to your cart, you can start the checkout process.
CLIP
Tester: UX Strategist, Educator and VR Designer and developer. Tester was a power user of restaurant websites and apps, such as Dominos. User had moments of frustration and confusion while ordering, noting several pain points in the ordering journey, and finding usability glitches, but did note the enticing imagery.
Tester: UX Strategist, Educator and VR Designer and developer. Tester was a power user of restaurant websites and apps, such as Dominos. User had moments of frustration and confusion while ordering, noting several pain points in the ordering journey, and finding usability glitches, but did note the enticing imagery.
TASK 2 FINDINGS
- Packs section (made for groups) was often overlooked by more than testers or discovered much later
- Most all exceeded their budget with some accidental add-ons and not expecting default gratuity on non-delivery orders
- Common points of frustration or confusion were:
- Not knowing how many a Pack served
- Lack of status in the ordering journey on Packs
- Incomplete order recap in a pack (meat selections not displaying)
- Couldn’t see pricing breakdown of add-ons with a pack
- Some accidental add-ons users with poor paths to error recovery
- No guidance from system when no available times would display
- Users didn’t want to be tempted by something they couldn’t order
- Multiple sauce options were desired for groups when ordering a pack
- There is currently no mention of catering on the catering page, and 1 user thought this was the main menu with delivery buffet being the catering section.
- It’s not clear what page you are on in main navigation
TASK 3: Let's pretend you live in ______ and are traveling for work, and are looking for the nearest Dickey's location to you on the website. How might you go about finding that out?
CLIP
Tester: Cicerone & bartender. This tester considers herself below average in digital savviness but does order food online occasionally. She was 1 of the 2 testers who visited the everyday menu page to find a location closest to her because it had a map and search bar she was already familiar with.
Tester: Cicerone & bartender. This tester considers herself below average in digital savviness but does order food online occasionally. She was 1 of the 2 testers who visited the everyday menu page to find a location closest to her because it had a map and search bar she was already familiar with.
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TASK 3 FINDINGS
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FEEDBACK
“In my personal experience, just getting to view the menu required too many steps.”
”It would be nice to be able to view a menu without having to start an order.”
”As someone who has little patience, It felt it a little difficult to get around; especially when I'm normally ordering, I'm in a bit of a hurry!”
“When I become hungry, I become simple minded and have little patience for obstacles that get in my way of ordering food.”
”It would be nice to be able to view a menu without having to start an order.”
”As someone who has little patience, It felt it a little difficult to get around; especially when I'm normally ordering, I'm in a bit of a hurry!”
“When I become hungry, I become simple minded and have little patience for obstacles that get in my way of ordering food.”
SYSTEM USABILITY SCORE
63
THE BUSINESS VALUE
80% of testers struggled to find the menu. 30% of testers failed to find the menu.
The fact that users struggled to find a the menu or not find one— validates the fact that finding a menu wasn't easy for the the majority, and is in line with the 85.5% of our drop-offs on this page, which is the first page you must navigate through to be able to order.
Despite assuring testers we aren't testing them, they will generally feel pressure to perform and spend more time in a session not wanting to be beat by a product, so it's reasonable to assume that they would have been less patient or persistent in a real life scenario and bounced off sooner.
The fact that users struggled to find a the menu or not find one— validates the fact that finding a menu wasn't easy for the the majority, and is in line with the 85.5% of our drop-offs on this page, which is the first page you must navigate through to be able to order.
Despite assuring testers we aren't testing them, they will generally feel pressure to perform and spend more time in a session not wanting to be beat by a product, so it's reasonable to assume that they would have been less patient or persistent in a real life scenario and bounced off sooner.
FINDING THE MENU USERS SEEK
Bounced off from the Everyday Menu page (the map)
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Were able to find a food menu to order or browse
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CURRENT MENU PAGE
(Shown above) 
0.45%
are estimated to have ordered out of all visitors who attempted to view a menu 3% X 15.5% = 0.45% (Conversion rate) X (% visitors who found the menu) |
REDESIGNED MENU PAGE
3%
of site visitors can be expected to order when they can all access the menu easily 3% X 100% = 3% (Conversion rate) X (% visitors who found the menu) |
A menu page redesign solving for the navigational challenges of finding a menu is estimated to increase ordering by 6X
Calculations were based on the standard conversion rate of 3% for restaurant websites and are specifically referring to visitors who are attempting to view a menu when visiting the website. Calculations are not accounting for unknown variables such as site speed, which may effect users from reaching the menu.
REDESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS
In addition to the revised user flows in the videos above, I had several smaller adjustments to include in a usability redesign. Below are images from my presentation.
"Usability testing is simply due diligence for design."
-Lauren Hull
-Lauren Hull
SOURCES:
https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Six+Steps+For+Justifying+Better+UX/-/E-RES117708
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/return-on-investment-for-usability/
measuringu.com/ux-restaurant/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
https://uiuxtrend.com/sus-calculator/
https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/77-of-diners-visit-restaurant-websites-before-going-survey-finds/562008/#:~:text=A%20new%20survey%20from%20MGH,according%20to%20a%20press%20release.
https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Six+Steps+For+Justifying+Better+UX/-/E-RES117708
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-design/our-insights/the-business-value-of-design
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/return-on-investment-for-usability/
measuringu.com/ux-restaurant/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/why-you-only-need-to-test-with-5-users/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/usability-101-introduction-to-usability/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
https://uiuxtrend.com/sus-calculator/
https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/77-of-diners-visit-restaurant-websites-before-going-survey-finds/562008/#:~:text=A%20new%20survey%20from%20MGH,according%20to%20a%20press%20release.
LINKS TO CLIPS OF TESTERS
Finding a menu
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qt6idhjxajzbw24/AACvysd3k6njzKb3xxtP3_8sa?dl=0
Ordering
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zevx0f9mr4gr3hc/AAB9OKGzjPvHAuaHAchUNKG7a?dl=0
Checkout
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cmc43owlb6mv8t9/AAAdkaHTuuMZkzhx0-ZHDykIa?dl=0
Feedback
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvkvvumw5w4s1eu/AABn0Qj8Z7aTllmXrC7bMxQLa?dl=0
Homepage assessment
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ktoja7mswr0g6a/Preston%20home%20page%20first%20impressions.mp4?dl=0
Full sessions
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cmc43owlb6mv8t9/AAAdkaHTuuMZkzhx0-ZHDykIa?dl=0
Finding a menu
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qt6idhjxajzbw24/AACvysd3k6njzKb3xxtP3_8sa?dl=0
Ordering
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zevx0f9mr4gr3hc/AAB9OKGzjPvHAuaHAchUNKG7a?dl=0
Checkout
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cmc43owlb6mv8t9/AAAdkaHTuuMZkzhx0-ZHDykIa?dl=0
Feedback
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jvkvvumw5w4s1eu/AABn0Qj8Z7aTllmXrC7bMxQLa?dl=0
Homepage assessment
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ktoja7mswr0g6a/Preston%20home%20page%20first%20impressions.mp4?dl=0
Full sessions
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cmc43owlb6mv8t9/AAAdkaHTuuMZkzhx0-ZHDykIa?dl=0
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