Overview

<aside> 💡 The project aimed at reimagining a seamless search experience for users on localsearch.com.au - an online directory listing local small businesses in regional Australia.

The project was completed in 2 weeks. I was the responsible for the end to end design process collaborating with product manager and developers.

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Results

<aside> 🥳 User drop-out rate reduced by 30%

Paid business owner got 50% more exposure

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Problem

The previous version of the search bar was designed solely based on the coding structure, without considering an intuitive user flow. As a result, users faced difficulties navigating and effectively utilising the search function, leading to a high dropout rate. Additionally, the interaction and design language between the mobile and desktop versions were inconsistent.

Goals

1. User Goal: to find a local business that provides the product or service they need smoothly.
2. Business Goal: to enable users to find the most relevant search results and prioritise paid business owners by ranking them higher in search results.
3. Product Goal: to provide a consistent search experience on desktop and mobile.

Design Process

UX Audit

I conducted a comprehensive UX audit using heuristic evaluation and heatmaps & recordings on Microsoft Clarity, and listed out all the usability issues and pain points on the current design.

Along the audit, I also introduced a UX audit template which was later adopted by the design team as a preliminary step before the redesign process.