“Unavailable Data” project
Project overview
Similarweb is a leading provider of digital market intelligence solutions, empowering businesses to understand, analyze, and optimize their online presence. Its suite of products offers comprehensive insights into web traffic, audience behavior, and competitive analysis across various digital platforms. With features like website ranking, audience demographics, and traffic sources, Similarweb provides businesses with actionable data to enhance their digital marketing strategies, improve website performance, and stay ahead of the competition.
The product team at Similarweb observed inconsistencies in the presentation of data within the Similarweb platform. This observation prompted me to lead a collaborative effort with a Product Designer, UX Writer, and myself to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter.
Challenges
Similarweb users express confusion regarding the absence of data for a site they're searching for, which may lead to a lack of trust in our data integrity.
Additionally, users encounter difficulty understanding the meanings of various symbols like "N/A" and "-", resulting in friction and cognitive overload.
Hypotheses
Revising the presentation of unavailable data can diminish user frustration and foster greater trust in Similarweb.
Standardizing the meanings of symbols within our lexicon can alleviate user confusion, particularly when encountering partially missing data.
Goals
Increase the rate at which users recover when seeking a site with available data following an encounter with a site lacking data.
Reduce the volume of support tickets related to data unavailability.
Research
1. Platform Mapping
Conducted a thorough mapping of the platform to pinpoint instances of data absence presented from the backend.
2. Customer Support Analysis
Analyzed customer support tickets regarding "data unavailability" issues.
3. Competitor and Market Analysis
Examined how competitors and market leaders in other industries present data absence in their platforms and addressed similar challenges.
3. FullStory
I utilized FullStory to gain deeper insights into user engagement with the platform and pinpoint areas of friction within the user journey.
Solutions
Design a page for situations where there is a complete absence of data (no data available at all for a website).
Design an empty state for when a specific data point is unavailable.
Align symbol lexicon.
1. Designs for situations where there is a complete absence of data (no data available at all for a website)
Current design in the platform
New proposed design - minimize scrolling; improve clarity of the call to action.
2. Designs for an empty state for when a specific data point is unavailable
Current design in the platform
New proposed design - improved communication with the user, and clearer call to action.
3. Symbol lexicon:
0 means literally zero
- (dash) means no data
= (equals) means no change
N/A should’t be used
The lexicon will be distributed company-wide to foster consistency in product development, customer care, sales, and all facets of product presentation.
Results
The development and distribution of the designs and lexicon are pending. We are currently in discussions with the R&D department to secure approvals for production.