Background: Who is the Client and what is the product/service?
Context: Scaling “too fast”
At guild.xyz the team is full of hyper-talented developers.
The traction and the iterations are very fast, and the product decisions are shaped mostly by the investors and bigger “clients” feedbacks and needs. This is totally OK for an early-stage startup, but guild.xyz grew soo fast, that the need for proper user feedback emerged soon.
The problem
One of my first insights after the UX Walktrough was that the ( i ) -button on the corner misrepresents its functionality.
In the beginning, the ( i ) button navigated to the documentation, but soon other menu elements followed. The insider's eye got used to it. But my hunch was that a more appropriate icon would be a hamburger menu.
An opinion (even an expert’s opinion) isn't enough for based design decisions.
Here can UX research really help. I will show a great example of how to use “First Click” test.
Using first-click heatmaps to evaluate alternative design
I made two variants, one with ( i ) and another with a hamburger menu.
And I recruited participants (who never saw our platform of course). Then I showed them one of the variants and asked:
”Where would you click, if you were searching for more options? (eg.: Guide, Brand kit, Discord)”
The measurement tool tracked the first clicks and the thinking time.
The results were obvious, even with a small sample size.
Originally I wanted to make this as a pilot project, to introduce the “Design AB-test” and first click tests to the team, and to help grow design maturity. It was a pleasant surprise that an actionable insight emerged also.