eKourier Jan 2019

FEATURE

Lessons Learned Through Resear

B ack in 2010, we went live with what was then and still is in large parts, a cutting edge, ecommerce equipped website. Over the years we have added countless enhancements and functional capabilities with the customer experience in mind. In many ways a lot of those enhancements were based on our own interpretations and understanding for what makes a good modern design. In that time, we have learned a lot about consumer behaviour and digital marketing and have become pretty good in the complex area of systems integration. Of course, the world turns quickly, technologies change, and retail behaviours evolve as quickly as technologies allow. Sitting on top of all that is Googles influence, setting expectations around what great customer experience should feel and look like in the modern day where mobile devices are dominating the way digital is consumed. Those that follow Google’s best practises are rewarded with better search results, that’s the auto correcting nature of Google’s presence.

changes are difficult to make and difficult to scale across different devices (respon- sive design), a key ingredient which Google advocates. All these things combined, mean we have reached that tipping point, it’s time to invest in the underlying technology platform and a responsive shiny design which better presents our value proposition. Not only to meet Google’s mobile index prefer- ence but also to re-establish distance between us and competitors and improve our ranking performance and visibility online. Investments and opportunities like this are not the kind you jump in with both feet, they should be considered, and lessons leveraged through experi- ence, research and discovery. A type of research known as Usability Testing is one such way of getting a ‘good-bad- ugly’ account through objective participa- tion. Enter the CBA Innovation lab: A controlled environment fully equipped with eye-tracking devices, microphones, cameras and heat-mapping technology, allowing us to test key areas with customers across key functionality, like a Mystery Shop but moulded for a digital experience using these methodologies:

results using a desktop index (think of it as a library for web pages), that is up until recently. Now it’s moving to a mobile index, meaning all search engine results (SERPS) will be ranked based on the mobile version of those pages. For us, this presents a problem since we run two separate websites with mobile being light on content (by design in favour of function) in comparison to our desktop site. Investments and opportunities like this are not the kind you jump in with both feet, they should be consid- ‘

ered, and lessons leveraged through experience, research and discovery.

Under the bonnet, we have an 8-year- old web platform, by today’s standards

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Google has always ranked search

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4 Kennards Kourier Jan 2019