Background            

Argos is a staple of the British high street, with millions of users visiting the site each week. The no search results page was receiving around 20,000 visits each day, with 1 in 4 users (27%) leaving the Argos site after an unsuccessful search. Argos was losing out on a significant amount of revenue.

I carried out click-through usability testing on the existing page to understand the issues that users were having. I developed new designs, testing people’s confidence in finding products. I changed the copy and tested it to see if users could understand it.      

I also worked with the team to redesign the backend Argos synonyms manager, so that users are more likely to have a successful search experience.      

Research approach        

In order to understand why the current page had a high bounce rate, I conducted click-through usability testing with 150 users. They carried out a task and rated their confidence in finding the item they were looking for. From this I gathered actionable insights.  

Insights

2 search bars meant that users didn’t know where to continue their search. A large amount of users used the ‘Explore’ part of the page. ‘We think you’ll like’ performed slightly better than ‘Everyone loves these’. Only 38% of users felt confident that where they clicked would help them to find a kettle  .    

Iteration and testing

Based on these results, I developed multiple new designs, and tested those in the same way. I focused on highlighting the ‘Explore’ part of the page so that users could continue their search using the Argos categories.

I changed the copy from: “Sorry we can’t find the page you’re looking for” to “Sorry we can’t find any results for “pojpoj” and “Everyone loves these” to “Best sellers right now”. The new text is more descriptive and makes it clear to the user what has gone wrong with their search.

Impact

The redesign had a positive impact on the bounce rate, improving the search experience for millions of customers. 38% Of users felt confident that the original page would help them find a kettle. 72% Of users felt confident that the new page would help them find a kettle.