Yelp
Concept - Feature Consolidation
Researcher
The Problem
Yelp has 3 similar features that do roughly the same thing butin conflicting ways.
Bookmarks
Save any location
Lists
Only saves rated locations
Only available on desktop
Collections
Only saves bookmarks
We needed to find a way to combine all of these while introducing the Neighborhood feature. Before we begin in earnest we needed to figure out how the other guys were doing things
Comparative Analysis
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A “Things to Do” feature which helped users find new businesses to visit
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The ability to track friend recommendations
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Easy access “add to list” button
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Highly promoted Local Listings
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Quick access to categories
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The ability to share itineraries
User Testing
69
Survey Responses
12
Interviews
3
User Driven Iterations
Persona
Mark Adama
29 - Bartender
Goals:
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Access to recommendations from his friends
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An easy way to share recommendations with his friends
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Wants to check out trendy neighborhoods
Frustrations:
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Distrustful of random reviews
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Confused about the current Yelp interface
"I wish it was easier to plan a trip on Yelp, I already use it at home but their favorites thing is just so confusing."
UX Vision
In order to find a solution for Mark's needs, we found two features to included in this application.
Neighborhoods
This feature would combine Yelp's List, Favorites, and Collections features forming a simple, understandable interface for Mark.
Friend Recommendations
This feature would allow Mark to view his friend's recommendations over regular listings, this will instill confidence in the ratings.
Copy Iterations
During our second iteration, we came across some confusion due to language inconsistencies. On our third iteration, we came to an agreement about our final names: Favorites and Collection.
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Favorites containing every favored location
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Collections are a group of favored locations chosen by Mark.
First Iteration
Goal
Test the copy within the app redesign, and find out if the user flow aligns with user expectations.
Outcome
We found that users were very receptive to the user flow and immediately discovered the functions. Unfortunately, the inconsistencies within the language caused a lot of confusion which necessitated another iteration.
Second Iteration
Goal
We combined some of the copy to create a simple Favorites title and a Collection feature. We sought to find out if users were receptive to the new language within the redesign.
Outcome
We found that our testers quickly took to the new language. They related it to the Stay experience which was very popular with them. They felt that the new interface was a lot easier to understand than the current Yelp interface.
Neighborhoods Iterations
Neighborhoods was the most requested feature during our user interviews, they wanted a way to look for new places that were neighborhood specific. In order to facilitate that we looked for a way to allow users to search for places by location and a way to continue on from that page.
Goal
Find a lesser-used feature of the original Yelp application that can be replaced with the Neighborhoods feature.
Outcome
Through user interviews and testing, we found that our testers liked having the ability to search neighborhoods based on a single listing.
Adding to Favorites
We looked for a new way that allows users to quickly add businesses to their favorites and from there their collections.
Goal
Find out if users will recognize that they can slide the business listing to quickly add it to their favorites
Outcome
We found that users weren't expecting the new interaction and they didn't use it at all. They prefer to go directly to the business listing to add to their favorites so we chose to focus on that.
Goal
Find out if users respond well to the new icons and the steps needed to add favorite locations to their collections
Outcome
Our testers really took to the logo but we noticed that it took a longer time than they hoped to add locations to their collections.
Goal
Find out if the new design (which allows users to save their favorite locations to a list from the business listing) is well received.
Outcome
It was a flying success! Users really like that they have the ability to do everything they need to within the one page.