Overview

We ran user interviews to evaluate if our proposed updates to the main CUJ were as salient as intended and whether the secondary CUJ was still accessible to new and advanced users alike.

Google Ads Reach Planner: Saving Concept Evaluative Research

Goal:

To understand user reactions and behavior toward updated workflow updates for the keyword refinement CUJ. Determine whether the proposed updates are acceptable to users in their current form.

Role:

  • Lead UXR and project manager; collaborating, and getting input from Engineering, Product Management, UX Design, and Sales stakeholders during study planning and user interviews.

  • Worked together to generate insights and recommendations that were tailored to our engineering and design constraints.

Methods:

  • 60-minute, 1:1 remote user interviews with a diverse group of users to identify discoverability challenges in the updated website design and gather feedback and reactions on the proposed workflow updates.

  • Follow-up User Acceptance Testing (UAT) feedback via self-reported survey data to understand user sentiment over the course of a week.

Results:

  • The proposed updates tested well and were generally appreciated by users since it would streamline a labor-intensive portion of their workflow.

  • Newer users were more likely to struggle finding the de-prioritized, more advanced features, but expressed excitement at the prospect of having the new feature prioritized.

  • I generated a list of design recommendations, such as making all items of the de-prioritized features a little more salient than proposed so that novice users could still benefit from a helpful feature.

Challenges:

  • Technical set up of this project was challenging. Constant coordination and collaboration between Engineering and myself was required to make sure users were able to have a realistic interaction with the tool.

  • Although the main finding was in line with our Product team’s goals, the secondary finding regarding novice users’ challenges with the updates were not. This prompted a discussion on whether we were willing risk this in an effort to push our launch.

Impact:

  • This research allowed us to green light and release a long-wished-for feature with little to no concerns for our users.

  • The feature automated a labor intensive process that saved users hours of time during their keyword planning experience.