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Prototype Review in the Site Redesign of

AutoNews.comJohn J. Fitzgerald

Director of Business Planning & Online CommerceAutomotive News Group, Crain Communications

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Autonews.com Background

• Leading automotive industry website– 1.5 million+ page views per month

• ForeSee Results’ client since 2005• Online revenue more than tripled (+205%) in the past three

years despite a down B-to-B advertising market• Online advertising accounts for 2/3 of total online revenue

– Very high effective CPMs ($50+)

• Bid of up to $1 million for redesign process including usability studies

• April 2007: Began committee-led redesign process • December 2007: Soft launch• January 1 2008: Public launch

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About the Prototype Review Process

• Learned of service at last ForeSee Results user group

• Goal of prototype review:– Provide feedback from usability perspective into potential

wireframes

– Save time, reduce costs, mitigate risk on the front end

• Project timing: Late September to mid-October

• Decisions for the redesign team– Which changes could we make?

– Which should we make prior to the launch? After launch?

• In total, we made 37 changes prior to launch, out of 75 recommendations as a result of “usability violations”

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Excerpt from Prototype Review

• Reviewed 4 wireframes: Home page, Section Front template, Article template, Data Center home page

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AutoNews.com Home Page

Examples of things we did• Logo and home button

rendered unclickable• Events and Subscriptions

moved to third level navigation

• Article text changed to sans serif typeface

• Registration and e-mail signup simplified

• Added ability to change text size

Things we didn’t do• Move the Leaderboard ad

($$$)

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AutoNews.com Section Front

Examples of things we did• Subnavigation options

spelled out (“Finance & Insurance” vs. “F&I”

• Consistency in labeling across section fronts

• Logical grouping of headlines

• Thumbnail images with top stories

• Date and time on story summaries

• “Back to Top” link

Things we didn’t do• Make videos contextual to

specific section

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So…How Are We Doing?

• Satisfaction scores are up in April 2008 versus our 2007 averages– Functionality 81 vs. 78– Look and Feel 80 vs. 76– Navigation 77 vs. 73– Search 74 vs. 72– Overall Satisfaction 77 vs. 74

• “Fresher look. Good improvement over previous site”• “New layout is much improved”• “Better layout”• Next step: ForeSee Results do to usability review on the live

site – Planned for May or June