USER
Business Owners/Merchants
DURATION
8 months
Role
I was assigned to the Bing Team at Studio +91, and worked with the team on my internship project (detailed below). I also worked closely with the actual Bing Places development team to help design experiences and ship a few pages within Bing Places for Business.
Design Objective
The design objective was to create a business owner-focused experience. The experience would work in tandem to help them train their business chatbots to be more efficient.
These chatbots were limited to the North American market and were being tested in geographies that had more detailed business data initially.
BING PLACES FOR BUSINESS
Bing Places for Business is one of the foremost listing platforms available online. A Bing Places entry surfaces when a user triggers a Bing local intent query. A local intent query suffices as any query defined by a location.
Currently, the core functionalities of Bing Places for Business were the following;
- To claim a listing, (or add, in the case that Bing couldn’t surface an existing listing)
- Verify a listing
- Update your listing to have the latest information for Bing users.
Bing SERP with proposed Bing Places listing
WHY?
Bing Places for business wanted to take advantage of the business chatbot surfaced on the SERP. A SERP is a search engine results page, in this case referring to a Bing search. However, the chatbot was deflecting questions it didn't have the data for.
KEY POINTS
The purpose of this project was three main things;
- Create an experience that would quantifiably engage the customers more than the current one.
- Improve Bing Places data collection framework (Core Bing Places, Survey Tool & Bot, and Misc additive data).
- Handle secondary experiences like deflected questions.
Hypothesis
The design hypothesis centered on the assumption that business owner engagement is low because the listing portal isn’t ubiquitous. Also, the current design was not intuitive to collect deep data.
The measure of business engagement requires a long period of time, which was one of the restraints of this project. Thus, a satisfaction score (which could be directly correlated to engagement rates) was measured.
User Study
Initial research consisted of user studies, and telephonic interviews, due to geographical restrictions. An ASQ (After Scenario Questionnaire) and SUS (System Usability Scale) were the main tools to collect data points for the hypothesis.
PERSONAS
These studies showed that users fit into three main key personas.
- Jason - Stand-alone business owner.
- George- Admin at healthcare businesses management agency.
- Victoria - Loyal Bing user.
An example of one of the personas outlined above.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
A second user study was done. A detailed account of tasks were plotted on a user journey map. The map shown below illustrates a Bing user’s complete journey for finding a restaurant to eat at. The user journey maps consisted of a full breakdown of the subtasks, as listed below;
- User Goals
- User Expectations
- Process
- Affective Experience Map
- Pain Points
- Problems
- Solution Ideas
INSIGHTS & PAIN POINTS
While talking to the business owners, it was clear that;
- They described a packed work schedule with hardly any time for anything else.
- While discussing other listing portals, business owners articulated that they were dissatisfied with Bing Places' lack of a feedback loop.
- A majority of the business owners weren’t very proficient with the listing portals and admitted they often required help from an employee or colleague.
Bing SERP Customer Journey - This outlines the journey the business owner's target audience is likely to follow.
Business Owner/Merchant Customer Journey - This outlines the journey that the business owner likely to follow.
IDEATION
These ideas were then shuffled and grouped according to similarities in concept. This grouping resulted in five further buckets which were the components to the core of the three proposed concepts.
The five resultant buckets at this stage were;
- Data
- Customer Feedback
- Enhancement
- Growth
- Custom Experience
Design Approaches
Diagnostic data was at the core of the new Bing Places for Business experience. However, it was obvious that there were complimentary ideas that could add to the Bing Places experience.
After deliberation, I set up with expert reviews (managers, design leads, and mentors). This session helped me confirm a hybrid design approach. A hybrid of Business Identity, Bot Identity (for the bot up-sell), and Diagnostic Data was the new blend.
Business Identity: Customisation and gamification to earn badges/rewards
Business to Business Approach: Focuses on connection and social gratification
Diagnostic Data Approach: Much more data driven and insightful
How the main focus on the hybrid approach was selected
FRAMEWORK
These ideas were then shuffled and grouped according to similarities in concept. This grouping resulted in five further buckets which were the components to the core of the three proposed concepts.
The five resultant buckets at this stage were;
- Actionable card feeds - Directs user's immediate attention and action to vital data points.
- Micro transactional tasks - Complete a big task in small bite-sized chunks, when users have the motivation or time to.
- Pervasive data collection - A unified version of the core Bing Places data, Survey Tool data & deflected answers. These would automatically add to the deep data to train the chatbot.
High level architecture based on the hybrid approach and framework
Design Language & WIREFRAMES
The visual identity was derived from the Bing HIG (Human Interface Guidelines). The first step was to create a coherent identity that was easy to link back to the anchor (Bing). This was achieved by recycling Bing’s Signature teal, used across the SERP’s branding.
Interim Survey designs. These designs were created to present how I'd incorporate my design with Bing's HIG
Mid-Fid Wireframes for the survey tool what would be used to train the chatbot and collect deeper data about the listing.
Mid-fidelity wireframes to show bot answer experience to allow users to customise responses to reflect brand/business listing.
FINAL OUTPUT
Visualisation of core Bing Places framework
Visualisation of Analytics & Diagnostics of Bing Places data
Visualisation of a proposed experience for increased user enagagement with the 'Competitor Feed'
Mobile experience for deflected questions
Usability Testing
The first part of the testing was a think-aloud protocol. At the end of the task, business owners filled out the same ASQ and SUS they had in the initial user study.
There was a definite increase in engagement and ASQ, SUS scores, proving my hypothesis to be valid.
The business owner completed a task end to end, and while they were doing so talked through it. The task given to them was to answer a deflected question on their business listing. (The deflected question presented to them would lead them to need to update a menu item.) The process/steps the business owner took to reach the outcome were left up to them.
FUTURE SCOPE
As a future scope, there could be more work done for the focus on the upsell of identities on Bing.
Offering these identity development methods would work like having a social media account. The profile would need constant updating to provide gratification. The gamification of these interactions might also delight users and motivate them to repeat tasks.
