ECONOMIST.COM REDESIGN
LEAD UX RESEARCHER AND STRATEGIST, UX/UI DESIGN SUPPORT
DELIVERABLES
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Research strategy plan
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Test plans and scripts
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Research insights and recommendations
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Feedback overview
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Customer satisfaction scores analysis
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Infographics
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Prototypes
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Usability test reports
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Usage analytics reports
METHODS
TOOLS
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Ecamm
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Google form
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Hotjar
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InVision
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Maxymiser
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Skype
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UsabilityHub
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UXPin
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WhatUsersDo
BACKGROUND
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The goal of the Economist.com redesign was to create a faster, responsive website that enhanced the reading experience, showcased the breadth of The Economist’s content to encourage subscriptions, improved the customer journey for visitors purchasing or renewing a subscription, and continued to support advertising revenue.
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Before the project began, there was only a limited understanding of how readers engaged with The Economist across the website, mobile apps, and print. Most prior research had focused on marketing and advertising, leaving a significant gap in knowledge about actual user behavior on Economist.com.
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Organizational structural and strategic changes led to a highly compressed delivery roadmap, leaving very limited time for generative research.
OBJECTIVES
The primary objectives of my research and testing strategy were to deepen our understanding of how readers used the website, identify pain points and bugs in the new Economist.com, and uncover opportunities for product innovation and commercial growth.
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Given a compressed timeline, I optimized the documentation of results and streamlined research within each sprint to ensure rapid learning and iteration during the redesign.
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A key long-term goal was to establish a system for tracking trends in reader satisfaction over time, create a readers' panel, and lay the foundation for continuous, iterative development.
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SECONDARY RESEARCH, STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEWS
AND IDEATION WORKSHOPS
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To shape my primary research focus, I began by reviewing all relevant UX and marketing research from previous projects, along with available analytics.
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I conducted interviews with senior stakeholders across departments to build alignment around shared goals. Stakeholders were engaged from the outset and received regular updates throughout the project.
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During the discovery phase, my team also facilitated ideation workshops with editorial and commercial teams, in collaboration with Edenspiekermann, a digital news design agency.
USER INTERVIEWS
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I identified key areas of interest such as browsing, search, navigation, cross-platform usage, commenting, social sharing, use of multimedia, ad perception, paywall experience, account management, and feature suggestions, and developed open-ended questions to guide conversations.
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A short survey on The Economist's blog recruited 30 readers from different regions and subscription types. I conducted 30-minute interviews via Skype, recorded with Ecamm Call Recorder.
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I compiled a detailed summary highlighting recurring patterns and themes. These insights were shared with the cross-functional team and directly informed product development, aligned with internal priorities.
CREATION OF USER FEEDBACK SYSTEM AND READERS' PANEL
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The Product Team and I recommended an incremental launch strategy to reduce risk due to limited testing, and to allow for iterative improvement. The new site was first shown to 5% of visitors, gradually increasing to full rollout over nine months.
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With support from Product and Development, I implemented an efficient, cost-effective system to collect, analyze, and present reader feedback.
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Over 20,000 reader comments were gathered, categorized, and analyzed during the rollout period.
THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM
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I developed a structured feedback process using:
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A customized Google Form to collect comments, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), satisfaction scores, and user metadata (e.g. subscription status, device, URL).
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A spreadsheet tracking feedback by sprint and category (e.g. navigation, performance, login), calculating positive/negative sentiment, score changes, and trends.
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Visual charts and diagrams to present key insights, which proved crucial in gaining stakeholder understanding and support.
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THE READERS' PANEL
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Readers who submitted feedback could opt in to be contacted. Those who consented were thanked by the relevant teams and selectively invited to future research and testing, forming the basis of our readers' panel.
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CONTINUOUS OPTIMISATION
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Reader feedback directly shaped the redesigned Economist.com.​
For example, users requested more homepage content and higher density. In response, we increased visible links, which led to an 8% increase in homepage click-throughs.
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Combined with metrics, ongoing feedback helped surface feature issues and identify further enhancement opportunities.
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THE DELIVERABLES
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To ensure feedback was actionable for each team, I produced tailored deliverables for every sprint:
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A two-page Feedback Overview Report summarizing key insights, scores, and recommendations, with a link to all comments.
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A Customer Service Spreadsheet highlighting issues for the support team to address.
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A one-page Physical Poster featuring top feedback, displayed throughout the office to maintain visibility and engagement.
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REMOTE TESTS
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I designed test plans, defined scenarios, and wrote scripts for multiple remote usability tests using WhatUserDo.
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Each test involved 10 non-Economist readers evaluating the site on desktop or mobile, sharing their first impressions and completing tasks (e.g., share an article, renew a subscription, purchase a gift subscription). Sessions lasted up to 20 minutes and were recorded.
I also used remote tests to discover usability problems in the navigation and in new interactive features prototypes built using InVision and UXPin; the key findings of these tests were fed directly into the iterative product development process.
A/B TESTS
AND USABILITY HUB TESTS
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A core objective of the redesign was to increase subscriptions and improve the user journey for prospective subscribers.
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In collaboration with Marketing and Circulation, I helped formulate hypotheses and A/B testing strategies using Maxymiser. Tests focused on paywall and registration barriers, internal ads, and calls to action.
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I also ran 'first-click', 'preference', and 'five-second' tests with UsabilityHub to refine messaging and design for conversion optimization.
VISITORS RECORDINGS
AND HEATMAPS
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To better understand browsing and clicking behavior, especially on the homepage, I helped implement visitor recordings and heatmaps via HotJar.
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I developed a findings template to share results with the wider Product Team. These reports became a regular component of our ongoing research process.
