One of my tasks at Equinix was to conduct research to inform the redesign of the Analyst Reports section of equinix.com. Our research included interviews with Content SMEs, comparative analysis, Hotjar heatmap analysis, and data from Google Analytics.

Properly showcase this powerful resource.

Analyst Reports are a valuable educational resource. They offer unbiased advice from a variety of sources that users might not otherwise have access to. We need to champion this content and present it in the best way possible.

Comparative Analysis:

To better understand the wider space and options possible, we conducted a comparative review through analyst report pages of companies like AWS, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Rackspace, Salesforce, SAS, and Zendesk. For each company, we pinpointed aspects that were effective and aspects that weren’t. Aspects we liked included:

AWS: The distinctive “New” flag, publishing dates, and “New” filter category work effectively to create an impression of dynamic, fresh content.

Salesforce: Grouping reports under each analyst firm adds an authoritative air to the page via association with these respected brands.

SAS: In a similar fashion to Salesforce, using the logos for each analyst adds authority to this page.

From the comparative analysis, we boiled down the ideas we liked into actionable items for our own page.

Deploy category filters, tags, and standardized naming to enhance usability.

Users should be able to quickly drill down to find content by subject area or use case and analyst firm.

Leverage new and time limited content to encourage repeat visits.

New or expiring status should be flagged for each report.

Use a compelling page design that allows the content to shine.

A large, clean grid, with imagery and white space, would align Equinix with these contemporary design trends and allow the page to shine.

Build authority by association with analysts’ brands.

Analysts are respected and authoritative, so showcasing these via categories and logos associates these brand values with Equinix too

We used Hotjar to look at heatmap analysis on the current Analyst Reports page, specifically looking at click and scroll patterns. The scroll patterns told us that 75% of users scroll below the average page fold to investigate the top two reports, so there didn’t seem to be any glaring usability issues there.

Click patterns:

Based on click trends, we can identify three groups of users:

The first are enticed to click on the headline report. This might indicate that a featured or top analyst report section could drive more engagement.

The second are browsing the reports section - they reach the bottom and click the pagination to move on. It’s unclear what proportion are exploring versus those looking for a particular report.

The third are browsing the whole resources section, so click the side navigation. A negligible number of users click the top site menu, so resources is right for them. Individual reports are not drawing as many clicks as the headline report - either users are not finding what they want, or else they are merely exploring the area. Related, the title for a report is clicked on four times more than the “Learn more” link, so this may not be needed.

Google Analytics

We used Google Analytics mainly to see what routes users were taking to and from the Analyst Reports page. We found that user numbers were quite low, but conversion (measured by how many people clicked to download a report) was quite high.

Capture users from headline reports.

With massive user numbers, the headline report pages can be leveraged to increase site users overall.

Increase number of returning users.

Users may return in higher numbers if enticed by the appearance of consistently fresh content.

Add paths for further engagement.

Users who are engaging and converting are likely to consume further content.

Using our research, we came up with actionable goals for the new page, shown below.