For every entrepreneur who dreams of an online empire, launching a digital business begins with one step: purchasing a domain name. You dream up a name, check to see if it’s available, and register it to hold your future website. Unfortunately, sometimes the site you wanted is taken and you’re faced with a host of alternatives: use an extension other than .com, find a workable variation, or try to buy the site from the current owner.
This is why one of the most essential tasks that domain registrars provide is the ability to search for available domains. Let’s take a look at how different website registrars approach their search functionality and how it might compare in a UX Benchmarking study completed via remote usability testing.
UX Benchmarking in the Domain Registrar Space
UX Benchmarking allows brands to measure task-oriented UX key performance indicators (KPIs). For example, how long does it take to complete a specific task or find certain information? Then, the company can compare those KPIs across design variations on their own site or against other companies’ websites to better understand how they’re performing and what needs to be improved. It’s essential that the tasks being completed are straightforward and based on the actions that a user would typically take on a site.
In the domain registrar case that we’ll explore below, this would be tasks like searching for a domain, registering a domain, renewing a domain registration, or arranging for website hosting.
Register.com’s Search Features
Register.com is one of the original players in the domain registration space and their experience shows in their website’s layout. When users land on the site’s homepage the search function is immediately evident – an open bar with a big “Search Domains” button in vivid green that’s below the navigational bar and above the splash.
If a user’s task was to enter a specific domain such as “Marketing.com” it would be easy to understand where to start. Once the domain name is put into the search box, users are taken to a second page with the results. In this case, it shows that although the domain isn’t available there are alternate choices and premium domains for consideration. Users are also given the option to make a Certified Offer for the domain from the current owners on the same page.
Benchmarking Against 1and1
1and1.com allows users to register domains, build websites, and arrange for hosting in a single interface. When a new user lands on their site, however, the search bar to look for new domains is less visible than on Register. It’s at the very bottom of the page, barely above the fold, below a bold navigational bar and a big splash advertisement for the site’s drag and drop website creator.
Do these advertisements distract users and make it harder for them to complete their task? Or does the advertising related to their ultimate goal – to create a website – fortify them and encourage them through the process of searching for and buying a domain? Without testing, it’s hard to know. But concrete UX Benchmarking tests that focus on something as straightforward as “search for and purchase the domain Marketing.com” would quickly reveal these aspects.
After a user has checked to see if the domain is taken, they’re taken to a secondary page that reveals Marketing.com isn’t available. Users can search for an alternative, choose one of the suggested different domain names, and view their cart but there isn’t an obvious way to make an offer for the domain name.
Insights from UX Benchmarking
The insights that a company in the domain registration space would gather from UX Benchmarking would depend on the KPIs they were focused on. But a few things would likely be revealed, such as the fact that most of the sites in the space have large search bars on their home pages. The positioning varies a bit, which might influence the time to complete a search, but most users would likely be able to complete this task fairly quickly on any industry site.
The real variation, however, occurs on the results pages with how the information is organized and displayed after the preliminary search has been completed. For example, if the task was to to make an offer to purchase a domain name that’s already owned it might be easier to do so on the Register.com site given that it’s included with the results. On 1and1.com, users would have to search further. Other tasks might focus on selecting an alternative domain that you know was available or looking at different variations on the name with specific extensions.
UX Benchmarking – whether conducted as individual studies or as part of ongoing initiatives through solutions like Xperience 360 – provide companies with methodical data on how they’re performing against the competition. While it’s possible to analyze your competitors’ sites and form hypotheses about how websites are performing, in the absence of market data these are best guesses. With real user feedback you’ll know if your hunches have been confirmed, uncover new opportunities to optimize performance and conversions, and be on your way to offering site and app visitors the best user experience possible.
Are you interested in learning more about UX Benchmarking or UserZoom’s new Xperience360? Contact UserZoom today to learn more about our solutions and services.
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