After the launch of Epinions 2.0, I began the one of the most interesting phase of my job – examining the server logs. The goal was to look at the actual behavior of people using the site, spot problems and come up with solutions.

Problem: One-Hit Wonders

The most notable finding: we discovered a user group we liked to call One-Hit Wonders. After examining a session log, we found that 47% of users view only 1 page. Of these users, a over half come to Epinions from a search engine and land on a product page. This is a loss for Epinions and a bad experience for those users.

Solution: Make the dead-end a hub

For a design solution, I proposed that the product page be more like a hub, rather than a destination. It should also never be a dead-end.

For example, when a user searched for ‘Vaoi PCG-XG38′ on MSN, they got to this dead-end page at our site. This was the first solution that I proposed. After talking with engineers, we decided to go with a version that would take less time to implement.

• View the dead-end page
• View the first proposed fix
• View the compromise version

Skills

• Site-analysis
• Cross-team communication, negotiation and respect for the engineering team