The number 1 website for fans of the most popular talent shows like America’s Got Talent, The Masked Singer, The Voice, and American Idol.
www.talentrecap.com
OVERVIEW
Talent Recap is the only independent website that is exclusively dedicated to the fans of the most popular talent shows around the world.
I was brought on to discover any issues, redesign the desktop website and mobile, AMP.
ROLE
Director of Design Research and Strategy
User Research | Heuristic Evaluation | Information Architecture | Card Sorting | Competitive & Comparative Analysis | Visual Design | Prototyping | User Testing
RESEARCH + SYNTHESIS
Heuristic Evaluation: Conducted a heuristic evaluation on the current site where I accessed that the site meets the basic best practices, but had some minor and medium issues.
Competitive / Comparative Analysis: Researched and evaluated other websites, studied their features, design, layouts, and functions to best determine and solve the problem at Talent Recap.
User Interviews: Used a screener survey, asking participants what their experience is with fan sites. From the 22 particpants, I interviewed 5 and tested the current site.
Affinity Mapping: I synthesized my findings and found common insights.
USABILITY TEST 1 - SITE AS IS
The test was a success, but …
Users chose to search and when tried to navigate were quickly confused and stopped
Users did not scroll more than halfway down the page
The site was too ad-heavy
OLD SITE
“My friends and I have a fantasy league for America’s Got Talent, say what you will.”
PERSONA
Lisa | 35 years old
Job: Advertising/Marketing Director
Lives: NYC
Go to Device: iPhone
Lisa loves staying up to date with all her favorite talent shows.
She just wants a simple website that is not bombarded with ads and is easy to use!
PROBLEM
People use fan sites to stay updated with the latest news and gossip about their favorite tv shows.
Lisa set up an America’s Got Talent fantasy league with her friends and is in charge of keeping everyone updated with the latest news. She is quickly overwhelmed by the number of sites she opens and needs to sift through. How might we maximize her time and alleviate any overwhelming feeling she gets when looking for the newest AGT updates?
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Old Site Map: I mapped out the current site map and quickly realized there were many duplicates, leading to user confusion.
Card sorting: Conducted card sorting, to understand how the users’ would want to best organize Talent Recap.
Site Map: I synthesized the card sorting results and created a new sitemap. Eliminating the clutter and making it simpler to navigate.
SUS SCORE
While conducting the card sorting, I asked users to grade the current site to gauge the overall feeling of the site.
USABILITY TEST 2
A large challenge with this test was a glitch with the prototype. Due to budget restrictions, I worked with what results I could and felt I still was able to interpret whether the task was a success or not.
Users were satisfied, found it to be simple and comparable to others, but the ads were not distinguishable and the homepage was cluttered.
“I would definitely use this site! It is similar to others I use and easy to navigate.”
FIRST TESTED DESIGNS
CATEGORY PAGE
HOMEPAGE
ARTICLE PAGE
USABILITY TEST 3
Users used the navigation vs. wanting to search and found the site to be easy to use and understand. The only issue that arose was the headlines being unclear.
“I LOVE THE ON TV NOW AREA, IT MAKES THE SHOWS IM LOOKING FOR EASY TO FIND AND THE VOTE BUTTONS WILL KEEP ME COMING BACK TO TALENT RECAP.”
KEY FEATURES
The ON TV NOW section is made to resemble a remote and give easier access to category pages.
Drop down menu for each TV Show category to eliminate extra pages and clutter.
To orient the user and make navigating the site easier, I implemented breadcrumbs.
To remove the extra navigation buttons, each show page has buttons to go to their recap and international pages.
To orient the user and make navigating the site easier, I implemented breadcrumbs on the article pages as well.
To help retain users, a read next button was implemented, giving users an easier way to continue reading.
MOBILE DESIGN | AMP
AFTER REDEIGN SUS SCORE
I retested the design to see if the SUS scored changed.
PROTOTYPE
SCREENSHOTS OF LIVE SITE
TESTED DESIGN LIVE
Proved to be liked by all, but I soon realized there were some responsive issues.
Due to the newest Google update, I edited the homepage design. I ran a survey on the current site, ensuring the design would be usable and liked by our current users. Once proven, I implemented changes,
FINAL THOUGHTS
Through this project, I learned that users value simplicity, and ease of use overall. Users voiced how they have their go-to sites that they keep up with their latest shows, and when Talent Recap was redesigned to resemble those sites, users were more likely to use this site. The main issues with Talent Recap’s site were the Information Architecture, layout, and amount of ads. With these main issues pinpointed, I moved to design a more delightful, simple, and easily navigatable site. The ads were a bit of a roadblock, as the site is monetized via those ads, so I did my best, to minimize the amount and push them to the side where they wouldn’t be so distracting.