NEWS CONCIERGE
IMPROVEMENTS

WHAT DID THIS PROJECT COVER?

Over the course of a year, my role involved researching and implementing improvements for the News Concierge website, taking into account the limitations and availability of the development team. Utilising FullStory, I identified issues causing customers to abandon the booking process and uncovered the reasons behind this behaviour. After implementing the design changes, I monitored their effectiveness and reported the results to the relevant stakeholders.

This project looks at the highlights (not all) UX/UI projects I initiated over the year:

News Concierge Personas
New Contact and FAQ page
Cleaner UI and Positive Affirmation

WHAT IS NEWS CONCIERGE?

News Concierge serves as News Corp Australia's self-service booking platform for classifieds. Instead of contacting a call centre representative to place an ad or notice in the local newspaper, customers can use News Concierge for this purpose. This platform ensures that bookings are not only placed in the newspaper but also featured on either My Tributes or Buy Search Sell, depending on the nature of the booking.

NEWS CONCIERGE
PERSONAS

News Concierge caters to a diverse range of customers, combining personas from My Tributes and Buy Search Sell. It includes 5 persona types for My Tributes and 16 persona types for Buy Search Sell. The condensed version of News Concierge includes the following personas:

NEW CONTACT
AND FAQS

We discovered that some users were struggling to complete the booking process or had specific questions about the user journey, which could only be resolved by calling the call centre. To alleviate call traffic, we created an FAQ page and a contact form.

The support team collected their most frequently asked questions from phone enquiries, and I was tasked with organising them into a logical and user-friendly format. I categorised the FAQs into three main sections based on the type of booking they relate to, and then further divided them into specific topics for easier navigation.

CLEANER UI & POSITIVE AFFIRMATION

During my time working on News Concierge, we implemented several design enhancements. One of the most notable was the addition of positive affirmations on the first page of the booking journey, along with a subtle redesign of the second page, both of which contributed to a more engaging and user-friendly experience.

POSITIVE AFFIRMATION

The business goal of one of this projects was to make small changes for the developers to implement quickly and to increase the conversion rate of online booking. Due to this time constraint and significant tech restraints, I used qualitative research and worked closely with the developers on what they could implement. Using the data I was able to determine which points the user drops were. Users would miss key inputs or input information incorrectly, which was causing frustration and abandonment. I redesigned the inputs and used positive affirmation to build user confidence, encourage completion and reduce cognitive load. Once implemented, I closely monitored the effectiveness of this enhancements, which saw a reduction in user error by 15%, decreased average time through the booking journey by 4%.

UI ENHANCEMENTS

Using FullStory again, I identified a trend where mobile users were consistently selecting one particular offer, unlike desktop users. A deeper analysis revealed that a percentage of mobile users weren't scrolling far enough to see the other two offers on the page. To address this, I redesigned the page with a carousel layout, ensuring that all offers were easily accessible and visible, giving users a better opportunity to explore all available options. Despite working within existing technical constraints, these enhancements led to a 25% MoM increase in upsells.

NEWS CONCIERGE IMPROVEMENTS