YELP: CREATING A BETTER REVIEW

Executive SummaryOur goal throughout this research has been to identify the strengths and weaknesses behind the users’ experiences and to discover opportunities for improvement. By conducting user research before the redesign, we will prevent costly errors. This resource of background data can provide Yelp with rich insight into their client base.In this presentation we will look at the following:• How participants were recruited • Research methods used • How data was collected • Analysis data we’ve received

from our studies • Our findings • Our recommendations

Business Goals

We’ve been through the site and have compiled a list of what we believe are relevant business goals for Yelp’s website and its mobile platform:

➤ Create a better experience for Yelp users.

➤ Generate more money by offering ad space to local businesses.

➤ Create a better recommendation platform.

➤ Get Yelp users to use event and list pages more efficiently.

➤ Create a platform for more social interaction and engagement between friends.

➤ Create more engagement between business owners and the users.

RESEARCH METHODS USED➤ Diary Study

This research method requires users or observers of users to keep track of activities or events in the form of a diary or log.

➤ Benefits to using this type of study are:➤ It allows users to record their findings without having an observer watching over

them ➤ The user experience on the Yelp website can be gathered over an extended

period of time.➤ Types of Diary Studies:

➤ Unstructured Diary Study - Participants report on everyday activities. ➤ Structured Diary Study - Participants report on everyday activities with more

specific questions. ➤ Usability Test - Participants complete specific tasks and report on results. ➤ Problem Report - Participants report on everyday activities and identify bugs or

experience problems.

RESEARCH METHODS USED➤ Usability Study

Researchers will evaluate a product or service ( the Yelp website) by testing it with a representative set of users. In these tests users complete tasks while the researcher observers them and takes notes.

➤ Types of Usability Studies:➤ Learn in real time how the website works for users. ➤ Get user feedback as soon as the study is over.

➤ Types of Usability Studies:➤ Problem Discovery - The goal of this test is to uncover and fix as many usability problems

as possible.➤ Benchmark - Benchmark studies are often called summative studies. A benchmark study

assess how much the user has learned. ➤ Competitive Study - Measures the Yelp website versus Yelp’s competitors. ➤ Eye-Tracking - Measures where users eyes are drawn in a design and the sequence of gaze

panthers.➤ Learnability - Measures how users learn. By giving users the same set of tasks to complete

we will measure the learning curve of the Yelp website.

➤ To recruit participants for our research study, an email screener was created to select our participants. Once the selected participant click on the link, they were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experience with the Yelp website.To entice people to click on the link we offered free meals ( a value of $100) as long as they agreed to complete a review on the websiteWe selected a diverse group of individuals from new users to yelp experts.Once we had our participants we asked them to send us their reviews.

Recruitment

Data Collection

➤ After each meal we had users record an entry into their diary.

➤ Once we received their diary of entries we scheduled time with each user to observe them using the Yelp website.

➤ We gave each users 5 tasks to complete:

1. Create a login on the yelp website.

2. Using the search bar, find the restaurant that you chose to review.

3. Write a review about the restaurant and include any photos you took.

4. Find your friends, read and comment on their Yelp reviews.

5. List anything that you would consider distracting on the website.

DATA ANALYSIS

TO SUMMARIZE THE DATA FROM MY RESEARCH STUDIES I WILL:

➤ Use graphs to illustrate my findings.

➤ Record user responses on things they liked about using the Yelp website.

➤ Record user responses on things they disliked about using the Yelp website.

➤ Report my findings.➤ And offer recommendations.

FINDINGS➤ All users completed tasks but in various times. While Participants 1 and 2 finished

within 5 minutes of each other. Participants 3 and 4 took the most time to finished their reviews. ➤ Participant 3 had a hard time with adding photos to to his reviews.➤ Participant 4 got distracted by reading on the articles in the news section of the

website. ➤ All participants 1-3 had a hard time adding photos to their reviews. No one new that

photos could be added automatically. Each spent time looking for the section “upload a photo” ➤ Participant 1 noticed the add a photo option but it’s small in comparison to the

write a review button. ➤ Participant 2 didn't confirm his address so he couldn't add a photo until he did

that however he could still write a review. ➤ Participant 3 is new to Yelp and couldn't figure out how to use the system. He

made a comment wishing there was a tutorial for new users. ➤ Content was another subject will all participants. Participants 1 and 4 liked how the

website was laid out. While participants 2 and 3 felt that the homepage was too content heavy.

SOLUTIONSIssue: Participant 4 got distracted by reading on the articles in the news section of the website.When it comes to the overall layout, I agree with Participant 4 in that it’s quite busy. There are too

many links that will lure users to a section of the site they aren’t even particularly looking for.

SolutionSimplify the design by removing distracting side navigation. For instance, the “Today in Talk”

section is all about what’s going on in the news, but what does that have to do with reviews on local businesses?

Issue: Connecting Facebook to Yelp.There should be a better way of adding friends on the Yelp website. As it currently stands, when you

connect your Facebook account to your Yelp account it sends friend requests to all of your friends instead of simply adding them to your friends page.

SolutionWhen users connect their Facebook page to their Yelp page, friends should be immediately connected instead of requiring users to send out friend requests. They’ve done it once, should they be required to do it again?

SOLUTIONSIssue: Seeing Friend Reviews There’s not an easy way to find out which restaurants a user’s friends have visited nor to

find and read their reviews.

SolutionWhen you log into the Yelp website, you should automatically see what your friends have

done recently instead of seeing what’s just happened near you. This is a social website and it should start with friends and their experiences first.

Issue: How to use Yelp.Yelp believes that users know how to use the website. While this is true for existing users,

new users will find it hard to navigate the website.

SolutionGive users the option to learn how to use the website instead of assuming that they already know what they’re doing.

Final RecommendationBuild the WebsiteTake all the testing into consideration with user feedback and we can build a more dynamic website that users will feel comfortable using.

We also recommend taking a look at the company’s SEO plan to make sure that our new design works with what’s already been done. If not, let’s work together to build a better SEO campaign.

Build the Mobile ApplicationAfter working on the Yelp website, we recommend applying the same tactics on the mobile application We can make sure that the look, feel, and brand messaging is consistent on both platforms.