User insights inform the design of a new customer portal for an Atlanta manufacturing company

How to design an ecommerce portal that meets customer needs

Here's a story of how an Atlanta-based manufacturing company built its portal to meet customer needs.

The leadership team had a long list of features they were considering for the portal. But they didn't know what their customers would need and want.

Because the company was starting from scratch in the design of the customer portal, they didn’t want to waste time and resources building features that customers didn’t need. So, they asked UX Firm to find out what their customers wanted in a portal.

Remote moderated usability testing provide insights

You can ask people what they want in a survey or focus group, and you might gain some insights that inform design. But, in our experience, nothing beats observing users engaged with the interface and learning from them what they like, what they don’t like, what they use and what they don’t use.

We got all those user insights and more through remote moderated usability testing. These came from watching and learning from our clients’ customers as they used competitors’ portals.

In one-hour sessions, each user went to a competitor’s portal where they had an account and showed us how they use the portal. We learned what they like about the portal, what they use and don’t use, and what they would change to make their experience better. If a test participant had access to more than one portal, we got them to compare and contrast their experience to show us which aspects they liked better on one portal or the other.

The client learned what worked and what didn’t work in portal design

There was a clear winner for the best portal design and several that fell far short of the goal of good customer experience.

In short order–this was a small usability study–the main features and functionality of the best customer portal became clear. Likewise, the customer portals that failed to provide a satisfying user experience also became clear.

“Nothing beats observing users engaged with the interface and learning from them what they like, what they don’t like, what they use and what they don’t use.”

Key takeaways from testing that you can use

• Just a little user research will show you what your customers  value most for a customer portal.
  
  
• A small remote moderated usability study lets you see how they navigate competitors’ portals and learn what your customers like and don't like.
  
  
• The results speed up the development time to launch the portal by focusing on the features that provide a good customer experience.

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