Conversion increase through usability research during redesign process

The first usability study was focused on finding out the biggest pain points on the old VVV Texel website. Not only to get confirmation that the new design solves these pain points, but also to further sharpen the new design. This resulted in the following main question:

How do users experience the VVV Texel website and what are the biggest bottlenecks? 

The second usability study was conducted after the website went live. The main goal was to find out how users experience the new website (compared to the previous website) and to identify points of improvement.

Almost the same research question was asked so that the results of the studies could be compared.

To determine the extent to which the user experience has improved, two usability studies were conducted. Both studies were executed through our research service.

In the first study, ten testers were asked to participate in unmoderated user tests. User Sense's UX team analyzed these results and summarized them in a UX Research Report.

After the new website went live, testing was again conducted with ten testers. Five testers had also participated in the first study, so it could be determined whether the user experience had improved for them. The other five testers were newly recruited and went in completely blank.

Thus, a total of 20 unmoderated user tests were conducted. To ensure that the testers were within the target group of VVV Texel, a recruitment campaign was set up. 

The first study: a better redesign

The insights from the survey made a positive contribution to the development of the new website, as many of the insights from the first survey were acted upon immediately.

The second study: a conversion increase

The insights from the second usability survey - on the new website - confirmed that the user experience had improved. However, a number of improvement wells also emerged that, once resolved, had an immediate positive impact on conversion on the website.

Testing during the redesign process had two major advantages, according to the VVV Texel team:

The initial research provided a clear picture of the bottlenecks on the existing website. This confirmed assumptions made and discovered new bottlenecks that could be solved immediately in the redesign. 
 
By testing after the new website went live, the optimization process was immediately initiated. The optimizations implemented as a result of the insights from the second study led almost immediately to an increase in conversion rates.