Does our website Float with customers?

That was the question that my team was asked in February of 2019. we were approached to review the website letsfloat.com owned by the company Float. Float is a new business concept. Their goal is to serve as a peer-2-peer rental marketplace for boats. Float models their service similar to an AirBnB for watercraft. The people at Float wanted to ensure the listing process and booking experience their website offers, were easy and painless for boat owners, and for people looking to rent a boat.

Float asked my team to provide insights that could help them refine their site’s digital experience. To do this, we decided to test one of the the websites main goals.

Site Goal:

“Support a hassle free and secure process for listing, searching for and renting boats.”

How do you know if Float sinks or swims?

To test the functionality of the Float website, our team decided to run usability tests on the Float website. Our first step was for each member of our team to individually conduct a Heuristic analysis on the Float website. During our Heuristic analysis, each team member used Float’s website to attempt completing a series of tasks that a typically user would be expected to perform on the site. Then our team met to discuss findings from our individual analysis. We complied all data and notes from our individual sessions.  This information was used to script scenarios that we would use to test with potential users of the site.

The next step in our usability testing was to test the site with actual people. Each member of our team conducted remote usability tests with potential site users. These tests were conducted online with recording tools that allowed us to view the participant and their computer screen as they tried using Float. My team also conducted a full day of usability testing at Fathom consulting. In the sessions at Fathom, we interviewed users as a team using a room that offered a 2-way mirror. Using that room, all of our team members were able to view and hear our test participants at they used the Float website.

Does Float sail with users?

In our usability tests, we interviewed and observed as potential Float customers used the site. These potential customers consisted of 9 boat owners and 11 potential renters. Each participant was asked to use Float to complete certain tasks important to either listing or renting a boat on the site. Our team took notes for each usability session that was conducted. After the sessions were complete, it was time for our team to compile and assess our notes from the sessions so we could discuss what we saw as a group.

Most of our usability testing participants loved the Float website! Most users we interviewed showed genuine excitement when discovering the service Float offers. However, Float was a new website at the time and had a few bugs that that users commonly encountered during usability testing. Most of the users we tested ran into similar problems, or had similar questions, while using Float. Our team made note of all of these problems and questions during the testing sessions. Our usability sessions were all video recorded. These recordings were used to review important data from the sessions as our team discussed our findings.

Then, all the data from our findings was compiled and prioritized by the team. From this data, we were able to see certain patterns and make key recommendations to the people at Float on how to improve their digital experience. I took the data complied by my team and went to work on a full report to hand over to the people at Float. In this report, I communicated to Float stakeholders that our research into their website was overwhelmingly positive, but they had a few design and site flow bugs they could address to improve the experience their customers have interacting with the Float website. My report detailed these issues that our users experienced with Float and offered recommendations into how to address each specific issue.

Findings and recommendations that hold water

My report to Float stakeholders, regarding the usability of the Float website, was submitted in early March on 2019. Float’s stakeholders were impressed by the work my team did on this project. Float asked to demonstrate the recommendations that I made in my report. I quickly submitted Float some wireframes for proposed changes to the site.

I’m proud of the work my team did with Float on this project. The information we uncovered should prove valuable to the people at Float in improving the experience their customers will have when using their website. Float is moving towards their first summer of business in Minnesota (aka. The land of 10,000 lakes). Hopefully, their business takes off sailing! Our team enjoyed having an opportunity to help contribute to Float’s story.