Vistaprint Turns to UserTesting to Understand Vexing Usability Issue [Case Study]

The challenge

Design and printing company Vistaprint thought they had done everything right in redesigning their important All Products page. The revamped offering was much more engaging and visually appealing than the earlier version, replacing a long, bland list of text with high-quality images showing the company’s products.

The problem was that consumers were far from smitten with the new page.

Web analytics revealed that the fresh design had increased the page’s exit rate by 16% and led to a 68% jump in the use of navigation links rather than links on the page. Moreover, on mobile phones the image-heavy page had a lower click-through rate than the previous text-based list.

Vistaprint knew there were major UX issues with the page, but it wasn’t clear exactly what the problems were. Why were consumers having such a hard time?

The solution

Vistaprint was already very familiar with the UserTesting platform, having used the service to augment their in-person and remote tests in the past. As Matthew DiGirolamo, Sr. UX Research Specialist at Vistaprint, put it: “If we have either completely open-ended questions about a product, or very pointed questions, we’ll turn to UserTesting.”

In this case, Vistaprint gave UserTesting panelists highly specific prompts for the All Products page, keeping feedback focused on what wasn’t working.

As Vistaprint’s team watched the UserTesting videos, the core issue became clear: While the new design was much prettier, it was also much less functional. The new page was harder for consumers to skim quickly, and the two-step process of clicking to reveal product details required more work.

With this feedback in hand, the team revisited the page and developed a new design. The pictures were replaced with text, and engagement levels returned to normal.

Sometimes, it turns out, simple is better.

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