The best decisions aren’t made on assumptions. They are based on facts. Therefore, doing extensive user research on the users’ needs and behavior gives valuable insights for design, product or content development. Google Analytics and many other tools collect way more data than you actually need. How do you find the needle in the haystack? By clearly stating what you want to know. This is how we did that for Miro, formerly known as RealtimeBoard.
Asking the right questions
What is the main aim of your page? Do you want to increase conversion? Improve time-on-site? Strengthen overall brand feeling? By clearly stating what you’re heading for, you know where to start your research. For example, if you want to understand why people aren’t signing up, you need to ask yourself questions like:
- How do people land on the registration page? If they click through via a Google Ad, are their expectations managed (what is the bounce rate/time-on-site)?
- What does the user expect from the page they land on?
- Which pages do they visit after the registration page?
- What is preventing users from successfully signing up? What are the distractions?
Tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar can turn pages into clear insights when you know what to look for. What is important to note, is that the actual needs of the users and common sense can beat data from Google Analytics. Conducting a usability test with potential and existing users gave us a broader perspective. By following the actions of Miro’s users, we gained a better understanding of actual user behavior. These findings were gathered in a UX-report, which functioned as the strategic guideline for the new user stories and user interface elements.
Time to talk to the users
The results from the extensive analytical research taught us how the user behaves on the website. It helped us understand the current state of the onboarding process and how we could improve it. At the same time, we wanted to turn Miro into a love mark. Therefore, we needed to know why people who were already using Miro, perceived the brand and the brand’s voice.
We talked to power users all over the world and gathered feedback that laid the grounds for the strategic brand story and brand identity. These users described Miro as being supportive, challenging them to create their very best work. For them, Miro functioned as a digital version of the analog whiteboard, helping them to get teams up to speed quickly, explain thinking processes and generate ideas within their remote teams. However, once they started using the product, they lost touch with the brand story. When they started working on a board, they immediately landed on their digital workspace within the RealtimeBoard platform. These findings pose some compelling challenges to tackle within the design process.
Building user stories
Miro’s users are located all around the world. They are modern-day pioneers, differing from marketers, designers, managers leading teams and are responsible for taking the lead within their teams or processes. To increase conversion, we chose to focus on team leads. Whether they are marketers, designers, or managers, the team lead has the most influence within a team. When we’ve set all the boundaries, we could start building new user stories.
The creation of user stories is important because they allow us to clearly map out the best possible way for a user to take a certain action. By setting these scenarios apart into concrete phrases, we could efficiently design the different steps for the customer journey.
Some advice for a better user experience
There is a varied audience researching the potential use of Miro. To get an overview of the benefits and advantages of Miro, the landing page should serve a clear idea of the product, even in a glance.
The homepage is now communicating the brand proposition with short and bold copy, combined with illustrations that tell the story right away. For those who are looking for more information, small taglines and interactive elements tell the full story. These details, combined with micro animations help the user to focus on the message that you as a brand want to get across.
Another element we found out in our research, is that users often mistake the sign-up button for sign-in. Therefore, we advised Miro to optimize the registration process by choosing other wording: Log in and ‘Get Started’ and in the future enable a one-way, two paths entry.
Components were defined in a modular file structure to keep design and code consistent and easy to (re)use throughout the entire website. By doing so, the user experience is steady across every touchpoint.
And now, we continue
The Miro UI is elegant, modular and focused on usability. UI elements use smoothed corners and stark, clear typography that does not distract from functionality. We differentiated user actions into subtle, yet clear, design and interactive elements, to make sure the user is eased every step on the way. And now that Miro is launched, we continue researching and improving user experiences across every touchpoint.
Curious to find out more?
Vruchtvlees: Digital, Strategy & Design is a design-driven digital agency that realizes the potential of ambitious brands. We make Dutch Digital Design: practical digital solutions and designs that people love and help brands grow.
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