Kathryn Sadler

The Australian Financial Review website redesign

UX review, usability testing & UI recommendations at various stages during the site redesign project.

My role:  UX Architect (Fairfax Media in-house team)
Credits: UI design completed by Sharina Singh; UI development completed by Ben Rhodes (both Fairfax Media - as part of the much larger AFR project team)
Platform: Adaptive website

Overview
The new afr.com was the first Fairfax Media website to be fully adaptive across all platforms. The new website launched in 2015 after nearly two years in development with a cleaner design and layout, improved speed and a smarter search function.

I was assigned to the redesign project at several stages during my time at Fairfax Media.

Key components:

• UX review

• Usability testing

• Competitor analysis

• UI patterns research

• User flows

• Sketching

• Wireframes

NOTE: Many images are low-res or blurred and cannot be expanded for confidentiality purposes.
Please contact me if you would like further information.

UX REVIEW
Version 2.0 of the AFR preview site was launched on 28 October 2014. I completed a high-level UX review of this preview site shortly after go live.

I compared the live site to the original wireframes and reviewed several different sections, including the homepage, topic pages, sub-topic pages, article pages, navigation and search functionality. I also viewed the site using a variety of devices and browsers - Chrome, Firefox and IE on desktop, Dolphin on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and the native HTC browser on an Android HTC One M7.

I summarised my findings in a slide deck containing screenshots and annotations using a heuristic key and I also provided a more detailed list of observations with severity level and recommendations.

USABILITY TESTING
Early in 2015 the AFR beta site was launched and I was engaged to carry out usability testing on the site with existing Financial Review subscribers. I was provided with a list of subscribers who had expressed interest in research participation and I was then responsible for selecting appropriate participants for an accurate demographic spread, contacting them to schedule sessions according to their availability, and organising other test logistics such as incentives, test devices, etc.

I drafted a moderation guide to use during the sessions to aid discussion and summarise each of the tasks they were requested to attempt. The sessions had to be run very efficiently as we required the participants to perform three tasks ideally across three different devices (mobile, tablet, desktop) in the 30 minute timeframe.

I alternated with the lead UX architect between facilitating and notetaking the sessions. Once the testing was completed, I reviewed the recordings of each session using Morae Recorder and analysed our notes to identify common themes across the participants and determine severity of any issues noted. I worked with the lead UX architect to create a test report of our findings from the testing. I also edited some of the recordings to create video clips that were embedded into the report to highlight certain issues when the findings were presented to the project stakeholders.

ANALYSIS & UI RECOMMENDATIONS - AFR FREE TRIAL
A couple of months after the final afr.com was launched, I was included on the project team to prepare for launch of a free trial to attract new subscribers. We were tasked with updating the subscription bundles page with information about the free trial and updated subscription bundle pricing.

I carried out a competitor analysis of several leading global news sites and their approach to subscriptions and paywalls.

I walked through the existing user flows for each user profile (new user, member and current subscriber) and sketched improved flows, which were then iterated as requirements changed.

I sketched numerous ideas for the new subscription bundles page layout and also created mockups of the revised sign-up form in Axure, based on the existing SMH sign-up forms.

I then worked with the UI designer to move straight into UI design of the new pages.

ANALYSIS & UI RECOMMENDATIONS - NEW PAY MODEL
The last project I worked on for The Australian Financial Review involved a restructure of the subscriber pay model, introducing a new lower cost product offering and a premium experience for the top level subscribers.

I proposed differentiated experiences for each subscriber type - non-subscriber, basic, free triallist and premium.

I worked closely with the UI designer as we came up with a wide variety of different designs, which were iterated after each round of stakeholder feedback.