UX IA: Growing Revenue on Mobile


Evolving Craigslist's Mobile App

Information Architecture/5-Step UXDesign Process



Margaret Seymour
UX Design & Research Specialist
-NN/g UXCertified

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Highlights

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-Craigslist Mobile App-

My UX Information Architecture team at UC Berkeley-x chose Craigslist Mobile for Case Study re-Design - an Information Architecture challenge with deep category dependencies (on a small form-factor).

But Mobile offers Craigslist the Business Value they need—more traffic and easier high-value transactions, on the devices Users' prefer and use most.

So we optimized the IA of CL's Mobile App with UX design by,

  • analyzing the current IA

  • better-understanding Users' mental models through research

  • testing alternate abstract IAs

  • honoring CL's values with intentional restraint

  • optimizing revenue-producing tasks:

    • move Users from 'Seeking' to 'Doing' (faster value 4 business & user)

    • surface 'actions' (every 'task' has an 'action')

    • 'actions' signify categories, aid Users (ex: volunteer = non-profit)

Design Strategy: Make it easier (more intuitive) and faster (more task-direct) for Users to get Tasks (highest $CL revenue) done on Mobile.

Results: Saw very good find-ability improvement on Tree Test (across the board)

I created an 'Actions' toolbar for faster task-completion - with very good initial effect, needs testing and further wire framing

Recommend: More tests on 'Actions' Tool

UC Berkeley-x UX-IA Team: Margaret Seymour, Claudia Benitez, Noynica Ahuja

Tools: Figma, Miro, PowerMapper Cloud, Optimal Sort, Balsamiq, Google Sheets & Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint

Source: process templates - Rakesh Patwari

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Great surfacing 'Actions' to speed tasks

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Figma project board I created

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

(Fig. 1) Test: Surfacing 'Actions' as LEVEL 2. (Fig. 2) Better as Navigation Tool. NEXT: Lo-fi prototype test

1) Conduct Initial Research

Identify Business Value & Key Tasks

Research informed the strategy

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Source: Yahoo Finance

Situation

The growth of Social Selling on Facebook (and others) significantly increases competitive pressure for Craigslist. Total user traffic in '21 for CL did not reach pre-pandemic levels, although revenue per transaction is up.

Context

We chose to focus on Craigslist's Mobile App information architecture. This was a challenge with 100s of items on a small form factor. But Mobile can increase Business Value for Craigslist best, with new traffic and by enabling easier high-revenue transactions (on devices people use most).

Goal

Make high-revenue Tasks on Craigslist easier for Users to Find and Do

Strategy

Make it easier (more-intuitive) and faster (more-direct) for Users to get tasks (with high CL $revenue) done on Craigslist Mobile

Design Imperative

Honor and maintain the values-first simplicity of Craigslist, while updating for more profitable traffic and mobile usage

Values

To respect CL's values-1st mission make it simpler and easier for CL Users to transact with each other in ways that are:

  • Friendly

  • Social

  • Trusting

  • Communal: as 'Seekers' or 'Doers'

Revenue Model

Grow traffic by optimizing more profitable and new usage scenarios (Mobile)

  • Move Users from 'Seeking' to 'Doing' faster

  • Innovate mobile to 'get things done'

  • Do UX User Research for inherent needs / mental model

  • Should we enable new modes of contactless-trusted transactions? Ex.

Cost Structure

Optimize community self-regulation

  • Minimize overhead

  • Maximize community ownership

Growth Strategy

Increase traffic and organic growth

  • Trusted peer - to - peer

  • Community - NOT a global Social Media brand

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-presented findings-

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-and research results-

Created 25 common Tasks

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Then Created 2 Personas for Most Desired Tasks: Buying & Finding Work

  • Provided info for User context, goals, needs, pain points

  • Helped create Tasks in next step - Card Sorting

Questions:

  • Highest revenue per transaction for Craigslist?

  • Most in-demand by Users?

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile
5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

2) Gap Analysis and Tree Testing 

Gap Analysis

  • Next, we performed gap analysis for the Tasks identified in research

  • Looked for key insights from our analysis

    • Missed opportunities?

    • Important tasks that do not have matching pages?

    • Included screenshots of the gap analysis spreadsheet

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-scroll to see-

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Tree Test

  • We conducted online Tree Tests with 18 Users, using Optimal Workshop

  • Used top 10 tasks we identified in research

  • Analyzed and presented results

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-scroll-

Tree Test Results for Top 10 Tasks

-Optimal Workshop-

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile
5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile
5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

3) Synthesize - From Analysis to Sitemap 

Steps

  • Planned and performed card sorting, in person and online

  • Analyzed the results of card sorting

  • Identified the relationship between card sorting and mental models in an Abstract IA

  • Created a 1st site map

Planned and performed 18 Card Sorts online and in-person

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-scroll the FigJam Board to see Tasks

Created script, finalized tasks, input to Optimal Worship, recruited participants, sent-out

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-scroll the FigJam board to see Script/ Revised-Tasks/ Steps

Evaluated 100s of results,

Normalized across 3 different native-language speakers (real-world in The Bay) for 'optimum' label results

-Craigslist has LOTS of CATEGORIES

Confirmed Prior Observations

  • User mental model of 'Gigs' is confused

  • Overwhelmingly chose 'Jobs' or 'Services' or 'Volunteer'

  • Starting with 'Nouns' made sense to Every User

  • Selling procedure unclear - but Category is not

    • AND Users went to 'For Sale' (VERB?) to sell an item

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile
5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Created draft Abstract IA and Site Map

using Mental Models from Card Sort

4)Refine, Validate & Design

From Sitemap to Navigation

Steps

  • Considered different classification schemes and organization structures

  • Evaluated  labels

  • Suggested more effective navigation ideas

Evaluated and scored 100's of labels

CLICK to see full spreadsheet

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-scroll-

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Using the new labels we updated the abstract IA 

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

And created 2 new Navigation Options

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

Evolved Actions idea from LEVEL - to Actions as Navigation Tool

Then performed another round of tree testing with new abstract IA

  • Note tasks for this second round of tree testing  must remain the same

  • Used same number and many but not all same participants (not necessary)

  • Compared Tree Testing results - observed how the results varied

  • Success - which would have been greater

    • IF 'Actions' had been also a 'correct' choice

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

-more success with new IA Tree Test

...more results

Results

5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile
5-Step IA Process to Grow Revenue on Mobile

5) Design - From Navigation to Wireframes

Steps

  • Considered different navigation models across form factors

  • Selected optimal navigation options

  • Created low-fidelity wireframes with Balsamiq

I designed 3 clickable lo-fi wireframes using Balsamiq

—Thanks for your time—