RetireLink*

• Web site for anyone to sign-up for their company-sponsored retirement
• Audience includes anybody in the company, from a dock worker to the CEO
  

First study of the site

• Discovered where and why customers could not sign-up
  • Unfamiliar words, confusing order of pages, confusing table and UI design
• Discovered where and why customers could not make changes to their account
• Significant number of support calls needed. Discovered where and why people called support.

Changes were made based on the first study

Second study of the site

• Most customers had little or no difficulty, very few support calls
• Most "top" issues were rather minor, such as going to the wrong link first, but finding the right one
  later. Also trouble making some rarely-used account changes.

Mega-Insurance* home site

• Provided access to many subsidiaries located in many countries
• Services to individuals and companies of all sizes
• Various subsidiary sites provide account services, transactions, and information
• Highly concerned about navigation

First study

• Attended by visual design, web design, and business people from three countries
• Customers ignored and did not use main navigation bar
• Customers did not realize they were on home page of parent company.
• Customers did not perceive a clear focus to the home page

Second study

• Much better results
• Customers easily recognized the identify of parent organization
• Everyone saw the main navigation bar

Soft-Tech* web site redesign

• Soft-tech sells high-end software to large corporations
• Web site's main purpose is to generate sales leads.
• Site supports customers.
• Worked closely with design and programming personnel.
• Conducted study of existing site.
• Studied how customers organize web topics in their own minds.
• Created rough design through prototypes and frequent user feedback.
• Conducted study of beta site.
• Result: Sales leads doubled the first month after launch.

The above stories illustrate the results of actual projects on which we have worked. Names and circumstances have been changed to protect client confidentiality. Client references are available upon request.