leave reviews quick and easy
How I helped Fresh Reviews modernize and improve their flow
Fresh Reviews is an app found on the front desks at brick and mortar shops. Fresh Reviews came to my design partner and I to update their flow.
The purpose of the app is to help shops grow, by gaining more attention through reviews. Our mission was to make it easier for customers to get reviews done in under 60 seconds.
My Role: UX Designer
Duration: One Week
Tools: Sketch, Invision, Photoshop
My Contributions:
Do the research on competitors
Questions for user interviews
Conduct interviews
Conceptualize animations for attention
Reduce and simplify flow
Create high-fidelity wireframes
Detailed prototype with transitions
Methods Used:
Business Research
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Persona Development
Customer Journey
Scenarios/User Flows
Sketches
Layout
Wireframes
Comps
Usability Testing
Prototype
What Needs solving
Fresh Reviews current app already had the hallmarks of good design of being clean and simple- but there were still some critical issues. Being directly asked to leave reviews, while helpful for a business to grow, is an overall bad user experience.
Fresh Reviews app needed to ask users to pay attention, to learn what it offered, without being verbally asked by the local shops staff.
Bottomline, Fresh Reviews paying clients weren't receiving enough reviews from their customers. The following opportunities for growth remained:
How do we get a shops customers to pay attention to the app?
What steps can be eliminated from the process, if any?
What text is needed, what can go?
What copy communicates the steps more succinctly?
Do the users understand where they are in the process?
Is there a consistent design aesthetic?
approach
This is the path I'll take when approaching Fresh Reviews challenges.
Analyze: Here I'll learn how Fresh Reviews app operates, what its flow feels like, and get to know the overall content.
Define: Questions that pop up during the analysis are pushed into user interviews- where I'll poke, prod and gain insight to define how, when and why people choose to leave reviews.
Ideate: Once I'm clear on the problems, I'll use the design method to kick things off. I'll sketch out an amalgamation of Fresh Reviews current format, and my ideas for improvement.
Test: Based on previous steps, I'll create my first attempt at reworking Fresh Reviews layout. I'll then user test to establish a foundation.
Iterate: With the recent findings, I'll start the process all over again.
Analyze
My team member and I researched several competitors in the review-request space. We did a deep dive into the experience of using these apps.
Here is a SWOT analysis of Fresh Reviews as it stood (strengths, weakness, opportunities, threats)- by way of comparison with its competitors.
Strengths
Extremely simple
Straightforward
Very few steps
No Competitors in the Austin Market
Weaknesses
How to get people to see the app, and pay attention
People dont want to login to social media accounts on public devices
The app asks people to leave reviews on multiple platforms at once
Opportunities
Consistency in UI
Telling the users where they are in their journey
How to get people to pay attention to the app without being verbally directed to it
Threats
15 other competitors in the space
Small market share
A study shows that 80% of people do not like to leave reviews at all
interviews
I was interested in hearing from both people who regularly leave reviews and those who don't.
The idea was to learn what motivates the avid reviewer, and why is there a lack of motivation for their opposite counterpart? The other things I was looking to learn was:
What do they think is the purpose of leaving a review?
What makes them want to write a review?
What stops them from writing a review?
How could they be motivated to leave a review ASAP?
Define
With the Interview questions set and competitive research done- the time came to synthesize the data and define what was learned. With these definitions we could explain what is important for the app moving forward.
interview findings
I used the affinity map method with the results from my interviews.
I wrote on post-its all the key quotes said by my interviewees. I then mapped them out on a wall, grouping together post-its that shared a general theme or sentiment. I found that people in general:
Are motivated to leave positive reviews because the service is stellar, or they want to see the business succeed
Are motivated to leave bad reviews because they want to be heard, or they felt there was a lack of integrity
Do not like being asked directly for reviews, that creates pressure
Would be more likely to leave a review with incentive
Personas
Goals
Wants to get his service and go about his day
Wants to be free from unnecessary responsiblity
Wants to be unplugged
Challenges
Hates being solicited for anything, espcially reviews
Low motivation to follow-through when not involved
Hates logging in to anything
Goals
- Wants to be heard
- Wants to share opinions about a business and its quality
- Wants to help businesses grow
Challenges
- Wants to do it in her own time
- Motivation when the experience was mediocre
- Reminders may alienate her
ideate
After the initial phases of research were done, it was time to put pencil to paper, and try and shake out some ideas, and bring them to fruition.
sketch
With a solid foundation of the competition, the current status of the app, and user preferences- I was ready to start sketching and work out a potential path. I sketched the following pages, starting with a low-fi wireframe.
The first round of wireframes for the full experience
test
user testing
In the usability tests of our low-fi version, a number of things were found that we needed to iterate on.
Trying to reduce the number of steps by adding more content to one page, made directions less clear, and the overall look more cluttered
The copy on the buttons was ambiguous for next steps
It felt strange that items weren't consistently placed from one page to the following pages in the flow
There was no clear indication of where or who the negative feedback was going to
iterate
With the feedback, I worked on revamping aspects of Fresh Reviews to once again keep things simple and elegant.
I focused on:
Break up the first form page into two very clear steps
Make the initial eye-catching copy more curiosity-inducing
Clearly indicate where the reviewers are, where they are going next, and what they need to do in order to be finished
Keep consistency with layout hierarchy
Explain where the negative feedback would be going
All changes can be seen below.
want to see the flow in action?
Click to view prototype
Reflections
Challenges
- Fewer steps in a process is not always a better or clearer experience for the user
- Taking away options from the users can provide a better flow
- No matter how simple the flow, its always important to let people know where they are
Solutions
- Gain attention naturally from customers to ask for reviews
- Make it clear, simple, and easy for the user to know what the steps are for leaving a review
- Copy that better communicates where the user currently is in the process, and where they will go next
Next
- Usability test with scenarios of positive or negative reviews
- AB test a landing page to see what gets more attention
- Conduct further field research
- Interview people who sit at the front desks of brick and mortar shops to gain further insight