Small Business Hub User Interviews and Usability Testing
Project Overview
The Visa.com product team provides an online resource for small business owners that aims to help them start, run, and grow their businesses. Before undergoing a website redesign, the product team reached out to request research that will inform the content, structure, and design of the new website.
Impact
The research findings and design recommendations that came out of this study were shared with an agency and provided direction for the redesign of Visa’s Small Business Hub. Content prioritization was readjusted to better serve the target audience. Navigation labels were updated, content groups were renamed, and most of the usability issues were fixed.
My Role
I was the lead researcher for this project and had the support of two other researchers. After understanding the research objectives from product and design teams I put together a research plan, presented a research approach and timeline, wrote a test plan, recruited participants, conducted usability sessions, and presented the findings to the broader team.
Methods
Over the course of one week, 14 remote user interviews and usability sessions were conducted with small business owners. Participants were sourced through dScout’s participant panel.
Research Objectives
Understand small business owners’ needs
Understand what content and partner offers are important to small business owners
Understand where SMB owners typically go for information about starting a business and other topics related to small business ownership
Test the content on the existing website
Validate whether the content provided on the Small Business Hub is what small business owners are seeking
Test the usability of website
Identify whether participants are able to successfully and easily complete top tasks
Identify UX recommendations to improve the usability of the Small Business Hub
Methodology
To address the varied research goals for this project, each session included both a user interview portion and a usability testing portion.
Study Protocol
Introduction (5 minutes)
Part 1: User Interviews (20 minutes)
Researcher followed a semi-structured interview script which included focused questions but allowed for natural discussion. This allowed us to understand what content and partner offers are important to small business owners, what resources small busines owners are looking for online, and the challenges they face while starting, running, and growing their businesses.
Part 2: Usability Sessions (30 minutes)
Participants were directed to the Small Business Hub and asked to complete 4 tasks to determine whether participants were able to navigate to desired content, compare partner offers, and get high level feedback on the website.
Wrap up Questions (5 minutes)
Recruiting Participants
Participant Demographics
The target demographic for this study were small business owners segmented into two categories: established business and early stage businesses.
Recruitment
After writing a screener that captures our target demographic I uploaded it to dScout, a tool that allows researchers to conduct remote live video sessions. I was presented with hundreds of participants from dScout’s participant panel who meet our criteria.
Sample Screener Questions:
Which of the following best describes your business structure?
Freelancer/Contract worker (e.g. task/project-based work, Uber driver)
Sole proprietorship
Partnership
Limited liability company (LLC)
Corporation
None of the above
How many employees does your business currently have?
I am the only employee [Accept]
2-5 employees [Accept]
6-10 employees [Accept]
11-20 employees [Reject]
21-50 employees [Reject]
More than 50 employees [Reject]
One of my favorite screening methods when using dScout is to request a video response in the screener. In this case, I asked participants to tell me about their small business, how they got started, and the biggest challenge they faced when starting.
These video responses gave me a good idea of how verbose a candidate will be when talking about the subject matter and helped me guarantee that they met the criteria I was looking for.
Testing Sessions
Introduction (5 minutes)
Part 1: User Interviews (20 minutes)
Part 2: Usability Sessions (30 minutes)
Wrap up Questions (5 minutes)
Part One: User Interviews
Sample Interview Questions:
First we’d like to understand a little bit about your business and how you got started.
Tell me about your business, what do you do?
How many employees do you currently have?
How long has your business been running?
Prior to the current health pandemic, what are some of the main challenges you’re currently facing?
How are you addressing these challenges?
How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted how you operate your business?
How have you addressed some of these impacts?
For this part, please think back to when you were first starting your business.
When preparing to launch your business, what were your three main questions, challenges, or concerns?
Where did you go for resources to answer these questions and concerns?
Which resources were most helpful? Why?
Do you ever look for information on how to improve your day to day business operations?
What are the main topics of interest when looking for information about how to run your business?
Where do you go to find information about how to run your business more effectively? Why?
What do you wish you knew when you first started your business?
When it comes to expanding your business, what are your three main questions, challenges, or concerns?
Where do you go to find information about how to grow your business? Why?
Part Two: Usability Test
Task 1: High-level Feedback on Visa Small Business Hub Homepage
Task 2: Navigating to Specific Content & Between Topics
Task 3: Comparing Partners
Task 4: Navigating to Specific Content & Between Topics Pt. 2
Sample Usability Questions:
Task 3: Comparing Partners
Getting Online: Okay, now let’s say that building a website or online store is one of your top priorities so you want to find some resources to help you get started.
In the past, have you looked for resources on how to build a website? Where did you go for this information?
On this website, where would you go to find this information? [note how they navigate to it]
[Getting Online page] On a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being very difficult and 5 being very easy, how easy or difficult was it to find this page?
What are your impressions of this page?
What stands out to you, if anything?
How does this page compare to your expectations?
How does this information compare to the resources you used to learn about getting online when you were first looking to do that for your business?
Please scroll down to the Visa Partners section.
a. What are your first impressions of this section?
b. How do you feel about the partners displayed here? Are these the partners you expected to see?
c. How do you feel about the layout of how they are presented?How would you go about choosing which partner would work best for your business?
a. Is there anything that would make choosing one of these easier for you?Based on what you see here, which partner would you choose? Why?
Before clicking on that partner’s link, what do you expect to find?
Go ahead and navigate to that page. Is that what you expected to happen?
How do you feel about that process?
How helpful do you think this page is, on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being Not Helpful at All and 5 being Extremely Helpful? Why?
Synthesis
After wrapping up our interview sessions, the team and I jumped into synthesis. When I’m leading a project I like using Mural, one of my favorite tools for collaboration during this phase of a research study. We pulled in all the key notes and quotes from the sessions and separated them by themes, research questions, and website pages.
Laying it out in this way, we were able to extract the key themes and quickly link them to the supporting evidences and quotes from the sessions.
Sample Findings and Recommendations
Understanding Small Business Owners’ Needs
When asked about the main questions/challenges they had when first starting their business, responses largely fell into three categories:
Business Logistics
Company type and registration
Getting Insurance
Budgeting and managing costs
Tax implications and processes
Establishing payroll
Automate invoicing
Marketing
Finding customers
Marketing/branding strategy
Industry- Specific
Obtaining state licenses/certifications (e.g. daycare license)
Understanding industry requirements (e.g. nutrition label for food items)
Finding facilities/suppliers (e.g. manufacturing facility for clothes)
Small business owners expressed a need for a centralized location for resources when starting their small business.
“It’s awesome that it has a bunch of information all in one central location. I don't have to go Googling things everywhere."
“I would've liked a step by step guide for anything and everything about managing the financial parts all in one place.”
Content on Small Business Hub
Participants were surprised to see Visa providing this resource and immediately associated the offering with payments.
There were mixed feelings about Visa’s motivations for providing this resource. While some mentioned that Visa is a brand they trust to provide reliable information, others questioned what Visa is getting out of this.
“I would never in a million years have thought to go to a credit card company to get information on how to start a business.”
Recommendation: Gain customer trust on the home page by making the value proposition clear and providing transparency as to why Visa is helping small businesses and providing this resource
The Grow Your Business section of the homepage did not encompass all the elements of growing their business.
To small business owners, “growing your business” expands farther than marketing and getting more customers and includes hiring employees, moving to a new facility, scaling up their supplies, and more.
“It’s only talking about marketing. That’s only one side of growing a business… How do you deal with operation constraints? How do we go about finding a co-packer or a facility to help us? How do we find sustainable materials? “
Recommendation: Consider changing the name of the Grow your Business section header to be more specific to the marketing content or expand the section to include other aspects of growing a business that fits SMB owners’ mental models.
Sample Usability Findings
Wrapped Carousel Not Ideal
Participants were slightly confused by the endless scrolling carousel because it was unclear when they had seen all the options. A few participants also thought it was odd that some categories had scrolling carousels while others were fixed.
“When I click through the arrows, it feels like there’s no end to it. If there is any sort of indication that could tell me, ‘Oh, this is just the next page and that’s it’ that would be good.”
Demand for Key Factors when Comparing Partners
Participants found it challenging to determine which partners might be the best fit for them.
Many reported that a filterable chart that displays all the partners once with their price structures and key features or target audiences would be helpful.
“They’re all so similar in their little snippet of information…I really would have a hard time choosing which one to check first.”
“A matrix that compared all the different options may be helpful….Like here’re our partners, and out of these qualities, here’s what they meet. So like these are better for e-commerce…This platform has X these don’t.”
Reflection
This was one of my favorite research projects! Mainly because I really enjoyed talking to this participant demographic. I appreciated the honesty and transparency the small business owners had while conveying to me some of the challenges they have faced in the past. I was interested to hear about the adjustments they each made to address the global pandemic in order to stay afloat and generate revenue. The most inspiring part of this study was getting to witness the resiliency of these small business owners, especially that of the young women of color who I recruited to take part in this project.