About Bersin by Deloitte

Bersin by Deloitte is a subscription based service that delivers research and strategies to the HR professional

 

Situation

Some customers are not returning to the site due to difficulty distinguishing between new and old research or finding content tailored to their interests. This has resulted in decreased engagement, particularly in the forums, and an increase in membership cancellations.

Task

  • Encourage customers to return to the site more frequently by designing a notification center that delivers new research tailored to their preferences, keeping them engaged with relevant content.
  • Retain existing members and drive new subscriptions.

Action/design process

  • Develop a minimal viable product, conduct further research and add features based on customer feedback.

Result

  • Early research showed an 11% increase in website participation over a 4-month period since implementation. I have not yet received feedback on membership renewal. However, we did receive positive responses from customers through the forums and help tickets.

Client

Deloitte, San Francisco CA

My role

UX Designer

Team

Product owner, developer, content strategist and UX designer

Tools

Adobe Illustrator

Timeline
Four sprints — 20 days

Date

2017

Discover

Problem Statement • Research • Features for MVP

Problem statement

Some customers are not returning to the site because they struggle to distinguish between new and old research or to find content tailored to their interests. This has resulted in decreased site engagement, particularly in the forums, and a rise in membership cancellations.

What makes a good notification?

Whiteboard exercise

Our team met for a strategy session to discuss the different types of notifications and, given the timeframe, decide which features we wanted to prioritize for the initial release.

We discussed the different notification types

  • User subscribed notifications – new and related research based on user preferences
  • Community generated – community forums, ask the experts, news feed likes and comments
  • System – resetting passwords, updates
  • Push notifications – pushed by the server rather than by a request from the client
  • Passive notification – weather update, no action required
  • Smart notifications – system can sense user interaction level

We discussed the notification structure

  • Most recent: Position top
  • Urgency: Use color
  • Read/Unread: Differentiate by contrast
  • Notification type: Filter
  • Title/Message
  • Source/Type of message
  • Urgency
  • Actions

Features for MVP

We decided to move forward with the following features.

  • User subscribed notifications – new and related research based on user preferences
  • Community generated – community forums, ask the experts, news feed likes and comments
  • User preferences — turn notifications on/off
  • Sort by date: New notifications at top
  • Grouping: Group notifications older than a day – This Week, Last Week, Previous
  • Actions: No urgency or user action required as these notifications are passive in nature

Features for future release

  • Pop-up notifications — prompt user to take action
  • Sound alert

Ongoing testing

We decided…

  • We should track customer interaction or feedback to make sure notifications stay relevant
  • Does the copy, format and frequency of notifications drive the desired action?
  • Do the notifications drive readership and participation with the site?
  • How much time passes between sending the notification and the user’s return to the site?
  • How long before users act on a notification?
  • Are the notifications annoying to the user, how about the frequency of notifications?

Whiteboard Exercise

Notification model

Develop

Wireframes • Specifications

Anatomy

Wireframe

Design explorations

Final design

Specifications

Conclusion

Early research showed an 11% increase in website participation over a 4-month period since implementation. I have not yet received feedback on membership renewal. However, we did receive positive responses from customers through the forums and help tickets.