We also wanted to give the web experience an app-like design that felt native to tablets and in particular, Android. We accomplished this by providing big, extra-large search boxes, buttons and tabs for fat-finger access and a left column in landscape mode for browsing categories and related searches. Other tablet-friendly elements include ‘Related Apps’ in search results and a photo gallery that made it easy to browse full-scale image results.

The problem wasn’t that users weren’t finding the Redbeacon link in Yahoo’s search results, but that once they clicked on the link and were routed to a Redbeacon/Yahoo! partner page, they dropped off. I had many assumptions for why this was happening but my biggest hunch was that users just didn’t have enough reasons to trust Redbeacon.  Now, all I needed to do was to test those assumptions.

Sketches were done to show how the flow and page layouts might work differently. Presented, were ideas such as showing logos of well-known media channels that had reviewed Redbeacon, customer testimonials, a live feed of recent Redbeacon requests and hires in your area, clearly written benefits, and more. The sketches quickly moved from concept development to wireframes to full-color mockups.

Next, we tested the assumptions using variations of the design and a variety of techniques including live usability testing, remote testing via a web service, and A/B testing. From what we learned, we then chose a single design direction, made changes and watched our metrics as the conversion rate increased by 300%! In short, it was a success and I really felt we hit on something—the ability for design to increase the feeling of trust and change people’s perception.

The second project was equally, if not more, challenging and included using design to encourage service providers to better build and maintain their Redbeacon profile. To add to the challenge was the fact that a good percentage of the service providers were not frequent Internet users. In other words, they probably don’t know their Facebooks from their Yelps!

To address this issue we designed obvious visual clues that a provider’s profile was incomplete and needed some work. On their profile page we did two things that screamed out, “You can do better!”: (1) We placed a large profile strength meter at the top of the page that related their profile completeness to their chances of winning a job. (2) Instead of only showing the content they had on their profile page, we also included the content they didn’t have. Providers could now see where they were missing basic information, portfolio pictures, ratings and testimonials. To a provider, not having a complete profile created the unwanted effect of having little or no experience.

In addition, we used a business card metaphor to capture basic information about each provider. A business card was something providers could already relate to and understand the importance of. Company name, provider name, phone number, address, head shot and Website link were all included on the business card.
Other features included inline data fields for entering information without losing view of the end result, a right-hand settings pane and an additional page for maintaining multiple profiles.

Each time a user visited the web site they were presented with a different image that stretched the width of their browser. While the content of the site was limited for this first version of the site, the clean design and large visuals showed that Martini knew who their target audience was.