There may be no better way to communicate what we do than through images. As you browse our site, take a few moments to let your eyes linger here, and see if you can get a feel for our signature touch.
Turning a powerful tool
into an approachable platform
At a Glance
The Client
Gorilla is primarily an online academic test, survey, and task builder. We were approached by Cauldron (Gorilla’s parent company) and were asked to take on the task of redesigning their testing samples pages.
The Opportunity
Given the complexity of Gorilla’s offerings our team’s challenge was to create an experience that feels both approachable and focused to new students while broad and powerful enough for returning researchers.
Overview
-
My Roles: Lead Interviews, Lead Prototypes
-
Duration: 3 Week Sprint
-
Project Status: Ongoing
-
Tools: Figma, OptimalWorkshop, Maze, Google Doc/Sheets/Meet, Zoom, Notion, Slack, Keynote
Through extensive research our team found the most effective areas to address: Standardizing terms used across the site, global navigation, as well as a landing page that provided quick access to commonly used tests on the site.
Our Solution
OUR
IMPACT
Increase in Navigation Success Rate
Seconds faster task completion time
Increase in average success rate
Task easiness rating improved
26%
81
44%
45%
Keep scrolling to see the full journey!
How We Got There
The framework we used to find our design solution
Investigate
Consolidate
Ideate
Delineate
Research
Design
-
Competitive Analysis
-
Comparative Analysis
-
User Testing
-
User Interviews
-
Prototype (Existing)
-
User Flows
-
Tree Testing
-
Heuristic Evaluation
-
Support Tickets
-
Design Studio
-
Figma Prototype
-
User Testing
-
User Flows
-
Tree Testing
The Challenge
Students come to Gorilla with very specific goals and with limited time.
They are young, mostly Mac and touch-screen users, who are unfamiliar with more advanced tools like sheets and Excel, and have limited knowledge in creating high-level tasks and experiments with Gorilla.
“How might we navigate new users to the correct page where they can learn basic fluency in the tools needed to make their own custom tasks and experiments?”
We developed a list of assumptions based on available information such as Support Tickets, client meetings, Desk Research, the client brief.
Assumptions
Hypothesis
Students need a lower barrier to entry for learning the skills required to utilize Gorilla, as well as a reliable way to find answers to their problems/blockers.
User Interviews
The Goal
Four 30 minute interviews were conducted to learn how current users navigate the platform.
Who We Spoke To
We spoke to a mixture of undergrad and graduate students. All participants were using Gorilla’s platform at the time of the interviews.
I wish that I had someone there walking me through it.
My professor told us “don’t reinvent the wheel” when designing experiments.
I used Google to find my answers on Gorilla.
Usability Testing (Existing Site)
Before testing a new design, we needed a performance baseline to test against. So we created 3 test scenarios based off of the most popular tasks of users.
Average Easiness Rating:
Average Time:
Average Success Rate:
2.5 (of 5)
105 Seconds
25%
We also Utilized:
Can't get enough of this research? We did plenty more in pursuit of real, actionable design solutions. See the full list or click on the links below for each full report.
Key Takeaways
Students come to Gorilla in order to run and complete specific research projects they have been assigned in a class.
Students have difficulty finding the information they need after having skipped the recommended tutorials they are prompted to watch upon logging in for the first time.
Students do not want to build a research experiment from scratch if they don’t have to.
Key Features
Top three used tests are now present on the platform landing page, as well as a quick link to all templets page.
New navigation options include global navigation bar on the left side of site, local navigation for templets page, a new search field, and lastly a new chat bot present on all pages.
Newly designed templets page allows one click access to view tests or try as a participant.
Moving to Design
With our extensive research behind us, and actionable insights in hand, we set out to design a layout that would no longer get in the way of students starting their projects
This was done over the course of one week and resulted in three rounds of hi-fi mock ups, each one user tested.
Key Features
Getting off to a Better Start
People come to Gorilla to build experiments. Previously users had to navigate through multiple fields in order to access them. Now they start one click away.
Before
After
Science Made Simple
Global Navigation Bar
Keeps all the platform has to offer only a click away.
New Search + Chat Bot
Helps you find what you are looking for, fast.
Final Usability Testing Deltas
Putting numbers to the difference we made
81
Seconds faster
task completion time
44%
Increase in
average success rate
Task easiness
Rating improved
45%
Moving Forward »
Our recommendations for Gorilla as they continue to grow.
Onboarding: Many onboarding pain points could be addressed by letting students choose where to start.
Unification of Terms: We recommend extending the terminology standard layed out in the global navigation throughout the rest of the site.
Sheets and Test Builder Layout: Gorilla requested we not redesign their test building pages. However our research did show that by having the sheets and test builder on the same page, their relationship became much more clear to users.
Final Thoughts
This design sprint was a fantastic experience to grow as a designer. Many of the tools and tests Gorilla utilizes I was unfamiliar with at the start. Learning about a new business space and all of it’s users is invaluable as a designer. This project represents a sizable shift in how Gorilla presents itself as a platform, and I am thrilled to see how they implement and grow in the future.