Developed case studies for a financial news site in order to clarify its value proposition and increase subscriptions.
The Original
- No clear value proposition – there are many ways to get similar information elsewhere.
- The original graphs are too small and don’t make it obvious what happened, when, and what the user can learn from the example.
- The study shows a “Learn More” button forcing users to do more work, instead of improving the case study so it does the work of persuading visitors.
To address this, I developed the improved case studies, wrapping the top benefit of the product in a simple narrative with a simple visualization.
Concepting and Collaboration
I always start on paper and get alternative viewpoints from others whenever possible.
I did some rough paper sketches to capture my idea: |
My collegue (@jlinowski) did his own sketch: |
My Solution
A new simple case study looked like this:
I also took the opportunity to show a multi-step scenario that involve both buying and selling:
These were based on my domain research and interview of the business owner, to learn past stories of success.
I designed and wrote 3 strong case studies to improve:
- Value proposition: New case studies better convey that early info = profit, which is the key benefit of this subscription. All examples are real, dead simple, and recent. The “How To” wording in the headline also helps convey that these sample strategies are repeatable.
- Visual hierarchy: The diagram is larger to emphasize the importance of this section to a prospective customer and reduce distractions.
- Usability: I simplified the diagrams and added clear annotations to show what happened, when, and why it’s important.
- Transparency: Trying to anticipate visitors’ questions, I lead with a consice screenshot of the actual news feed, so it’s clear what info lead to the decision being described.
Measurement
We A/B tested other aspects of the home page redesign. We agreed not to A/B test the case studies, because (1) team agreed it was an improvement (low risk) and (2) testing would impact other business priorities. After our initial engagement the client reached out to create several more case studies, based on positive feedback to the ones we originally launched.