Houzz · 2021
A profile that helps home pros get hired.
I was the design manager on the pro profile redesign, from card-sort research with 10 pros to an A/B test with 10% of US users.
In short
The pro profile is where home professionals show their portfolio, awards and reviews, and where homeowners decide who to contact. On the low-res screens most visitors used, the content that wins clients sat below the fold.
How I worked
I ran the research with power users, explored layouts in wireframes and tested them with participants, then set up the A/B test and its metrics with product.
The challenge
The best content was below the fold.
57% on small screens
Most desktop visitors used 1280px screens.
12.4% never scroll
They miss the portfolio and reviews.
3 crowded rails
A bulky layout that was hard to scan.
Poor responsiveness
It didn't scale to large screens either.
Research
Pros told us what their profile should lead with.
Each interviewee dragged cards from “most important” to “nice to have” for what their profile should promote, with blank cards for anything we'd missed. All were power users: 5+ projects, a complete profile and at least 1 review.
The work
How it came together.
01
From 3 rails to a clear hierarchy
Based on the research, we tested several layouts with participants and chose the one that worked best for hierarchy and content: project photos and reviews first, with more detail on what each review says.
Results
More connections, and better ones.
- Quality connections and time on site improved, so we rolled out to 100% of users
- We tracked time on site, Contact clicks and connections pros marked as quality leads
The final design
What shipped.
Looking back
What I'd do differently.
Test with homeowners too
We researched with pros, who own the profile. I'd also test with homeowners, who decide whether to contact them.
Track below-the-fold content
We moved the key content up. Measuring how far visitors scroll after the change would have shown how much it helped.
Design for phones in the same pass
This was a desktop redesign. Doing mobile alongside it would have kept the 2 profiles from drifting apart.