:: Online research and testing

Phase

• Alpha

Date and type

• Dec 4th 2019, Userzoom

Audience

• 25 participants, UK-based, aged 25-70, household income £30-80K, either business owner/senior business decision maker/entrepreneur

We were focusing on

• Priotising benefits and features of an online business network

What the test involved

• Participants were given a list of benefits of the platform and asked to rank them in order of importance
• Participants were given a list of features of the platform and asked to rank them in order of importance
• Participants were asked if there were any other benefits or features they’d expect to see from a platform like this
• Participants were asked which type of information (benefits or features) they’d be most interested in seeing to help them decide

What we discovered

• Top priorities for an online business network were expanding your network, getting business and development advice from business and industry experts, and digital regisration - entirely self-serve with no need to phone up
• Top features were forums - a space to ask/answer questions and join conversations, groups - sub-sections within a network focused on a specific topic, and direct messaging between members
• 75% of users said they would rather see inforamtion on benefits than features on the homepage
• Some users were interested in what costs/charges are involved
• Some users were interested in who is behind the platform (i.e public sector or private sector)
• Some users expected all network members to be vetted to ensure the quality of the network

What we’ll do next

• Use research to date to create wireframes of the network homepage, based on the information users have told us they’d be most interested in