G2Xchange
G2Xchange delivers community driven solutions and insights intended to meet the needs of the busy federal executive charged with growth.
The world of government contracting (GovCon) has been known to be inaccessible, and complicated for small businesses and newcomers. G2Xchange (G2X) aims to change that by making information easily accessible and to help companies to make informed choices.
G2X has relied on word-of-mouth marketing to attract users to the site. The site was initially designed with the assumption that visitors already knew what G2X offered and why they were better than their competitors.
With new ownership, they wanted to increase product users and make G2X a name everyone in the government contracting space knew about.
My team was tasked with redesigning the G2X landing page to better convey the services and benefits of the products, make information easier to find, and make the sign-up flow frictionless.
The site failed to inform people what G2X does and how it’s a benefit to them, to make information easy to find, and make the sign-up convenient.
Old G2Xchange Landing Page
The landing page and consecutive sites failed to inform people what services G2Xchange (G2X) provides and how it is a benefit to them.
Old G2Xchange Landing Page
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G2Xchange Site Flow
The old sign-up process relied heavily on the customer success team and kept users waiting for up to two days before they receive their account information and ability to access the site.
Sign-up Flow
I sat down with a member of the customer success team to understand the team's role during the sign-up process and their overall interaction with customers. They walked me through the process of account creation for new users as well as what their days usually looked so I could gain an understanding of what was on their plate.
I learned that the majority of the accounts created were normally for individual users or corporate accounts that were looking for about 20 seats and under and who only wanted one product.
We were the first design team coming into the company and none of us had worked in the government contracting (GovCon) space before. One of the first things we did was to understand the basics of government contracting and the terminology so that we could better understand our users and their roles when talking to them.
We did a 2-week research sprint to gather information and develop personas.
I started our research by talking to stakeholders to understand what were the important points they wanted to convey to new users and to learn what they already knew about the current users.
I wanted to understand how other popular GovCon sites spotlighted their features to users and some of the messaging they used.
I looked to understand how our main user types used the site, how it helped them in their day to day duties, and how they looked through sites when looking for a new service.
We were able to create 3 fleshed out personas based off of our research.
Time is an important factor for all three personas.
They want to quickly and clearly understand the value they are getting without sifting through a bunch of information.
We were able to learn what informs their decisions when picking new services to use, what G2X offers that currently interests each user type, and the best way to talk about it in a way that’s relevant to their specific duties.
A new site flow was created to create less confusion about the products and services that G2Xchange offers.
A new sign-up flow and pricing structure were developed to help take some of the work off of the customer success team and get users into the site quicker.
Based on the research, most new user sign-ups wanted one product and were looking to get either a single membership or a corporate membership with 20 seats or under.
With the new flow those groups of users are now able to create their own accounts without having to wait on the customer team to verify and issue accounts. Helping to cut down the amount of time the customer success team spends on this task and freeing up their time to connect with users in other ways.
Government employees, companies that want over 20 seats, and users that are interested in a custom plan still have to reach out via a form to the customer success team.
As we wrapped up our research, the stakeholders decided they wanted to include a free trial due to the new landing page putting the original site behind a paywall.
They still wanted people to be able to try out the site and allow the site prove that a membership was worth the investment.
Taking the information learned during our research phase, I applied the findings to my sketches and wireframes. As a team we reviewed at each step and combined ideas that we thought would best align with the research and what our stakeholders wanted.
The team moved through various iterations of the landing page before we landed on two different versions that we could show to stakeholders before taking them through user testing.
Although there was a rebrand in the works, we were limited to using the current branding that was provided from the marketing team.
We also had to keep in mind the current users and to avoid deterring them with a completely different site, we designed with them in mind and stuck to a lot of the imagery and design that they were accustom to.
Before heading into user testing, we talked through our design and the decisions we made with the stakeholders to get feedback from them. We made some minor changes before moving into user testing and held off on bigger changes to see if the user testing pointed out the same things.
During our user testing I was looking to see if:
Users would prefer a condensed version of the features to quickly read through.
Users felt like they needed more emphases on the value proposition to make a decision. Which was in line with our stakeholders feedback.
The final product was a new landing page that lets users know what G2Xchange is all about and how they can help their business to succeed within the government contracting space.
We were able to deliver a new landing page, updated information architecture, site flow, and sign up flow that:
Based off of user testing, we added a new section that succinctly states what we offer and the benefits.
This was our biggest goal with the redesign.
Based off of user testing, we added a new section that succinctly states what we offer and the benefits.
This was our biggest goal with the redesign.
Taking the feedback from our stakeholders, this section was used to define our value proposition.
Taking the feedback from our stakeholders, this section was used to define our value proposition.
On the previous site, users had to click into each page to find out what Health or FedCiv focuses on.
With the new designs, we removed the unnecessary click and shared the information upfront.
On the previous site, users had to click into each page to find out what Health or FedCiv focuses on.
With the new designs, we removed the unnecessary click and share the info upfront.
A more detailed look into the features that are offered and how they can benefit users to achieve their goals.
A more detailed look into the features that are offered and how they can benefit users to achieve their goals.
Trusted sources that evangelize the product. That shares their experience with the product, how they use it, and how it's benefited them.
Trusted sources that evangelize the product. That shares their experience with the product, how they use it, and how it's benefited them.
With the updates to the landing page we:
The updated site increased the amount of unique visitors as well as the length of time people stayed on the site.
The updated landing page, the introduction of a 14-day trial, and an updated account sign-up flow led to an increase in customer sign-ups.
This was my first time leading and managing a team, it was a real step outside of my comfort zone.
As a leader my goal for the team was to make sure everyone felt heard felt comfortable to share their thoughts. It was also important that we were all on the same page and meeting our sprint goals.
After we passed off the project, the developers were unable to fully ship the design due to the version of WordPress.
Bringing in the development team sooner when we were wireframing and thinking about interactions would have helped all of us understand our technical constraints.
