CT INSIDER
CT Insider is a Hearst owned, Connecticut newspaper delivering reliable and trusted news to its readers and subscribers.
BACKGROUND
We conducted six usability tests with CTI users, aged 30 to 70 living in varying Connecticut areas, by recruiting engaged participants from a previous survey launched on CTInsider.com. We showed participants a Figma prototype and asked them to perform various tasks.
The purpose of this project was to explore if...
Users understand the new geographic mapping based on our defined regions.
Users see a benefit of inputting their area to view regional content and articles.
we minimize confusion for the end user to navigate through our content offerings.
Users perceive the value of getting all of our CT properties digitally as a bundle on CTI.
Co-branding region with news brand build trust, loyalty and credibility.
Special focus went to testing a “region” dropdown to see how this new personalization feature resonated with our readers - would they find this useful? Is it easy to understand?
SELECT REGION DROPDOWN
TOOLS
Figma for designs and prototype
Zoom to conduct usability testing
User interviews for recruiting and scheduling
TEAM
1 UX researcher
5+ stakeholders
1 product designer
USABILITY TASKS
View some of the usability tasks I asked participants:
1.
What do you think “select region” does? What do you think will happen when you click on it? Go ahead and use the select region function - is this what you expected to see?
2.
Is there something that would be more helpful here regarding the region? How do you think this could change how you use the site?
3.
How do you feel about this section - “powered by CTPost”? How does this impact the trust level you have of CTI?
4.
What would you do next?
FINDINGS
After talking with the 6 participants, I gathered quotes and conducted an analysis.
Do users understand the new geographic mapping based on our defined regions? Do users see a benefit of inputting their area to view regional content and articles?
Most participants felt confused based on how regions were broken down in the dropdown menu.
Users mentioned a map, zip codes, a search bar, or to break it down by Connecticut counties.
Something was missing in order for this feature to be useful...
"What does 'Fairfield County' mean, exactly?"
“Do 'East of the River' people call themselves East of the River people?”
"I don’t know the difference between 'Fairfield County' and 'Lower Fairfield.'"
"I would have thought 'West Hartford' would have been in the Capitol Region.'"
View what our participants had to say about the region dropdown feature.
Does co-branding region with news brand build trust, loyalty and credibility? Do users perceive the value of getting all of our CT properties digitally as a bundle on CTI?
‘Powered by ctpost’ resonated with some participants, but not all. However, the co-branding did not detract from credibility.
"All the newspapers have long histories, and one thing Hearst has done well is preserving credibility and the history of individual publications.”
“The brands are helpful because they hint at the geographic area the coverage originates from.”
View what our participants had to say about co-branding and credibility.
TIME TO PIVOT
After sharing the results regarding region confusion, we discussed next steps with stakeholders. The regions on the dropdown were based on the areas of Connecticut our journalists cover. If we broke regions down by Connecticut counties, some landing pages would have very little content, since we don’t report in those areas. Instead, we thought about adding description text below each region in the dropdown.
I advocated for more research and felt strongly that the 6 participants I spoke with originally would have opinions. I emailed them the following message:
Good morning,
Thank you again for your candid feedback regarding CT Insider last week! It was great to hear your thoughts as a Connecticut resident. After taking your feedback back to our team, they had one more question about the region dropdown, which we discussed on our call.
The team is wondering which region dropdown is most helpful:
A) the one with town names and descriptions, or
B) the one with only town names
If you don't mind, let me know which design you prefer and why. Your feedback will directly impact what gets put on the website, which is pretty cool!
Best,
Rachel
"Definitely the drop-down with the subhead info. It's only a few words of extra type under each header but it will work wonders for readers, helping us better pinpoint a region we'd like to explore more. To me, it's a no-brainer. The more description the more I'm likely to click."
"I think if you're committed to keeping the existing naming conventions, having the sub-headers with the descriptions of what towns/geographies are included is really helpful."
"Oh, DEFINITELY the one on the left! I like that the region pops out at me, but if I don't know exactly what a certain region is (which I don't) I simply have to look a little closer to learn!"
After emailing them, all 6 got back to me with their thoughts. It became obvious which design was preferred.
RESULTS
We went with the designs with the descriptions. Even though additional text can lead to clutter, in this case, it was perceived as helpful from our actual users and readers. After stakeholder approval was given, the designs moved to the development team and they are now working on launching this new region dropdown feature to the live CT Insider site.