User Experience case studies examples

Why is it better to look at your users not at your product?
Netflix Case Study
The autoplay feature on the Netflix has been criticized by users since its introduction in 2015. Hovering over the thumbnail of the movie initiated the automatic play of the trailer. Consequently, it was not possible to check the movie information without playing the trailer out loud. Autoplaying of the next episode was also criticized, which was considered to be making decisions instead of the user or against the user.

Noted problem:
“I love Netflix, but browsing for new material is a nightmare. Every time I’m on a show or movie for more than a second or two, the preview starts to play. And it’s loud and often not at all the kind of content I seek. I hate that preview autoplay!” (Ask Dave Taylor Blog),
“I really hate this feature. I find myself tiptoeing around the hover areas with my mouse in the margins so I don’t trigger the autoplay. Audio is the biggest problem here, so it shouldn’t be set as ‘on’ by default.” (Jeff, CF Blog).

Research:
●  interviews with users about their experience with the platform.

Conclusions:
●  respond to user requests to change the autoplay function.

Implementation:
●  introduced the possibility for the user to set autoplay on his profile, so that both playback the preview while browsing the list of movies, as well as the playback of the next episode is optional.


Effect:
improving the experience of a large number of users,
lowering the amount of data usage while browsing the website.
Why is an idea good only when it is good for the user?
Facebook Case Study
The tycoon in the world of social media, Facebook, introduced in 2011 an innovative way of presenting information about the user - the timeline. It was supposed to be a complete history of the user's online life, broken down by years and months, and to present not only current posts, but also all the most important events, including photos and locations. Facebook encouraged the inclusion from "life before Facebook" events to the axis as well, in order to be able to present a complete picture of the user's life from the day he was born.

Noted problem:
Some users find the new design chaotic and unreadable - incl. arranging subsequent posts once on the left and once on the right side of the axis,
Users were afraid of Facebook's interference with privacy, e.g. by exposing moments in their lives that they no longer wanted to be reminded of.

Research:
●  interviews with users about their experience with the platform,
●  checking traffic statistics on the profile page.

Conclusions:
●  return to the classic presentation of posts on the user profile.

Implementation:
●  A new way of presenting posts on the user's profile has been implemented, which basically reverts to the original solution. The page has been divided into two columns so that new posts are displayed in the left column, while the right column is a place to display other activities such as photos, places visited, etc.


Effect:
separating the shared content made the profile easier to read,
voices about intrusion into privacy have been limited.
How to increase conversions by 20% thanks to UX research?
Walmart Case Study
Walmart Canada, has observed that a significant amount of traffic to their store's website is on the screens of their mobile devices. At the same time, the amount of purchases from there is small.

The company decided that their current solution for mobile devices does not really work and decided to use UX tools to check what expectations their customers who use mobile devices have and how to best meet them.

Noted problem:
poor conversion on mobile devices,
website design that is difficult to use on a mobile basis,
slow loading of some items.

Research:
●  website traffic statistics,
●  performance tests to check the speed of loading page elements,
●  interviews with users about their experience with the mobile version,
●  site prototype testing with users during moderated sessions across Canada,
●  A / B tests of various variants of the new design.

Conclusions:
●  the need for a complete reconstruction of the website dedicated to mobile devices in accordance with the current indications for responsive web applications.

Implementation:
●  application of the Agile work methodology during 16 2-week sprints,
●  website responsiveness has been adjusted to screens of a larger group of mobile devices,
●  page loading speed has been significantly improved,
●  removed distracting buttons and other unnecessary page elements.


Effect:
35% improvement in website performance on mobile devices,
increase of orders made on mobile devices by 98%,
overall conversion increase of 20% across all devices.
Interesting
The function of automatically playing the next episode of the series on the Netflix platform is an example of the so-called "dark UX", that is actions aimed at persuading the user to do something that they may not consciously want. This is due to a kind of producer falling in love with their product while ignoring the expectations of users. This example shows that the product should never be more important than the user.


Many Facebook users are frightened by how much this platform knows about them. They seemed to have always been aware of it, but before the introduction of the timeline, the information presented on the profile quickly disappeared from sight. It was only the new timeline design that made it painfully clear how much private personal data Facebook stores about us. The retreat from this idea clearly shows that the user does not always want to have easy access to everything.


Perhaps the most surprising insight from the tests of the Walmart's application was related to the presentation of product availability. There was an increase in conversions after removing the "View Details" button for products that could not be purchased online.
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