How Dell successfully redesigned the Alienware website

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Julie Vittengl

Senior Taxonomist & User Experience Researcher, Dell

UserTesting’s on demand customer insights platform enables companies to create powerful products and exceptional customer experiences.

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We Partner With Thousands Of Customers

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Across All Platforms, At All Stages Of Development

Watchcustomersinteractwith:

DESKTOP SMARTPHONETABLET

WEBSITES APPS&PROGRAMS

PROTOTYPES&WIREFRAMES

SURVEYS PHYSICALPRODUCTS

Anywhere people interact with your brand:

ATHOME ATASTORE ONTHEGO

On any pla6orm or device:

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Julie Vittengl Senior Taxonomist & User Experience Researcher, Dell

Julie Vittengl has been with Dell since January 2014 as the Senior Taxonomist on the Digital Customer Experience team. Prior to her role at Dell she was at Motorola Solutions. She has also worked at a scientific and engineering search engine, Globalspec (IEEE), as both a subject matter expert and taxonomy manager. In addition to her interest in organizing just about everything, she also enjoys reading, running, skiing and spending time with her family.

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Taxonomy Research at Dell

Julie Vittengl Senior Taxonomist Dell

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Agenda

•  Digital Customer Experience, and Research & Testing at Dell

•  What is taxonomy, and how do you test it?

•  Putting it into practice: Alienware redesign

Digital Customer Experience (DCX) at Dell

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DCX Process

Before Design Day

Design Day and Beyond

Refine solutions

Iterate & Validate

Genuine understanding

Listen

Empathy in action

Synthesize & Define

Diverge and converge

Brainstorm Solutions

Discovering opportunity Research

Framing the context

Create Personas & Scenarios

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Our Framework

Idea%onandintake Project

planning

DesignDevelop

Execu%on

Analysis

Core Services

A/B/n Testing

Upstream Analytics

Targeting Campaigns

Email Testing

Focus Groups

Surveys

Multivariate Tests

Usability RITE Testing

Card Sorting

Research & Testing Framework

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Research & Testing Tenets

Customer-Obsessed

Subject Matter Experts

Deliver Advanced Analytics in a Consumable Manner

Guide Decision-Making Through Insights And Experimentation

Serve as a Channel of Knowledge

Agile

What is taxonomy, and how do you test it?

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What is Taxonomy?

A taxonomy is a framework for describing information in the context of an organization to accomplish business objectives. Taxonomy enables and supports internal processes such as content management, and external-facing features such as navigation, search, and personalization.

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Why is taxonomy important?

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Taxonomy Testing

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Recruiting

Consumers –  No age restriction –  No income restriction –  Any gender –  Any country –  Average web expertise –  Any OS, browser, etc. –  Have you purchased technology products

(laptops, cameras, printers, etc.) online in the past six months?

Business –  Age 24+ –  Income $40K+ –  Any gender –  Typically United States, Canada, United Kingdom –  Any web expertise –  Any OS, browser, etc. –  Do you use the internet to research and buy IT

products (software, servers, data storage, networking, etc.) for your business?

I identify as: •  A consumer purchasing products for myself. •  A business user purchasing products for my business.

Putting it into practice: Alienware.com redesign

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Research Methodologies

Content Audit –  Of 144 URLs, 79 were duplicates –  Improve customer funnel from marking content to

purchase path

Focus Groups –  Surface external reviews –  Provide context around Arena –  Improve page scroll –  Improve content – more informative –  Simplify Deals page

RITE Testing –  Identified most important features and components

(graphics cards, video cards, RAM, price, etc.) –  Scannable product stacks. –  Entry-level gamers overwhelmed by content

Taxonomy Testing –  Card Sort –  TreeJack Study –  First-Click Test –  Category Naming Survey

Stakeholder Interview –  Consistent user journey –  Improved user funnel –  Brand preservation/education –  Improved compare/configure –  Better social integration –  Improved imagery/media/design –  SEO enhancements –  Responsive site

SEO –  ALT tags/graphics –  Text content –  Metadata –  Optimized URLs

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Recruiting for Gamers

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Taxonomy Research Results: Card Sort

•  Card Sort –  We ascertained that 63% of people grouped the

Alienware Alpha with the Alienware Steam Machine, suggesting a new category was needed.

–  The team also recognized that participants expected three major categories: Laptops, Desktops and Consoles (or Steam)

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Taxonomy Research Results: TreeJack

•  Tree Test –  When we wanted to understand whether users could

locate the Alienware Alpha in Consoles (as opposed to desktops) we tested using TreeJack, which showed us a high level of findability.

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Taxonomy Research Results: First Click

•  First-Click Test –  We were unsure whether to have “About”

content in the masthead or footer. We found that 95% of people clicked directly on the masthead and only 5% scrolled to the footer, informing us that we could omit it from the footer.

–  The team wanted to discover whether users of Alienware.com could locate content about when Alienware teamed with other companies to develop compatible products. We discovered 86% of users selected Partners instead of Products, thus validating the category.

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Results

Team Wins •  Customer-focused scope driven by the Digital Customer Experience Team •  Research-driven content strategy •  Improved customer journey

Key Findings •  Revenue Per Visit (RPV) +7.1% normalized. Program target +3.2% •  Conversion uplift: Home Page +75%; Accessories and Gear +73%; Deals +44% •  Total Revenue per Unit (TRU) 10% uplift

Bounce Rate •  Deals exits dropped 9%

Questions?