The Client
Norris Injury Law is a personal injury law firm specializing in asbestos and mesothelioma cancer litigation. This was a great client that truly wanted to help people. They would take on cases that no one else would. Unfortunately they were getting very few leads from their website, and those that they did receive often didn’t qualify. They needed better quality leads coming in, and a way to pre-filter leads that wouldn’t qualify.
The Finished Project
Project Highlights
- Increased lead quality from $0 per lead to $150,000+ per lead
- Improved lead intake efficiency
- Structured a complex topic with over 2500 words of content to be easy to digest for the user, as well as pointed to converting the most probable leads for the client
My Roles & Responsibilities
- Project management
- Client management
- Project strategy
- Project Management
- All UX design, research, strategy, and scrum responsibilities
- Project proposal drafting and pricing
- User research and testing
- Content strategy
- Sketches and wireframes
- Responsive designs
- Work with SEO and development teams to ensure a high quality finished product
Client Goals
- Increase website leads
- Increase the quality of leads
- Improve website aesthetics
- Maintain SEO
Internal Goals
- Strengthen client relationship
- Provide high quality UX services
- Establish our Conversion Rate Optimization abilities within the industry
Deliverables
- User research results
- Prototypes for new designs
- Developed and published webpage
- Reports on data and effective design
Technologies Used
Impact & Measurements for Success
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User engagement - (Measured through heatmapping software and Google Analytics.)
Before redesigning the page, I gauged the current user engagement. I found that users were spending several minutes on the page, but they were getting less than a fourth or the way through the content and they were not contacting the law firm. After the redesign, users spent less time on the page. Normally that would be bad, you want users to spend more time on the page, not less...right? Not in this case. I could see that, while users were spending less time on the page, they were also going further into the content and contacting the law firm at a higher rate. Why would this happen? Because the content was easier to digest, and pointed at converting quality leads. Users were able to quickly determine if the firm could help them with what they needed, and if they qualified.
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Quality of lead form submissions - (Measured by analyzing lead submissions and averaging the potential value of leads.)
Part of this project included creating a simple progressive form to filter out submissions that were of little value. In the time that followed the publishing of the page, we analyzed submissions. Previous to the redesign of the page, the client reported receiving very few cases of any value. The majority of leads received did not qualify for a case. After the redesign, approximately 30% were unlikely to have a case, 60% had a high potential for a case with a value of $20k - $150k, and 10% had a high potential for a case worth over $1 million.
Overcoming Obstacles
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Project development costs and time underestimated.
The development time needed to develop the project were underestimated. While we were thorough with our estimations, certain abnormalities made this project more intensive than expected. To combat this, I worked with the development team to see which aspects were the most burdensome and adjust the design to accommodate simpler programming when possible. I also spoke with developers individually and asked them to message me when they came across things that were tedious, and to feel free to make suggestions to adjust things. When suggestions were sent to me, I took care to understand what the difficulty was, and make adjustments where I could. Doing this helped team moral, as the development team saw me as a partner rather than a design-enforcer.
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Difficulties communicating with the client.
The client was not very responsive to emails nor very familiar with technology. To overcome this, I called and talked with the secretary and set video call meetings where I could walk them through the process and explain what information we needed.
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Challenges balancing legal requirements and user needs.
There were several times when things needed to be worded a certain way to meet legal requirements, but doing so was harmful to the user experience and in some cases detrimental. I worked with the client directly on this, to find ways to present the content in a way that met both user and legal needs. I found that a video call with the client was the most effective, as it left the client feeling impressed with the attention to detail and the quality of work being performed.
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Investor perspective incongruent with the Point of Contact's perspective.
At the end of the project, we noticed that the investor’s perspective was a bit different than that of the point of contact we were given. While both were happy with the end result, the point of contact was far more ecstatic than the investor. From this I learned the importance of setting specific, actionable metrics with all involved in the project and following up on what those are and how they were reached at key points during the project. I also learned the importance of visual data. At the end of the project, we reviewed numbers with the investor, and while they could see that they were good, it was difficult for them to picture how good they were. A visual representation of the before and after effect of the design in terms of revenue for the company would have been much more effective. While the opportunity was lost with this client, when I began implementing this with other clients, I saw a notable increase in client satisfaction and enthusiasm.
Project Phases
- Asbestos and Mesothelioma Research
- User Research
- Content Strategy
- Design Strategy
- Prototype redesign of the first half of the page
- User Testing
- Development/QC
- Run data on the user behaviors and design effectiveness
- Adjust content/design strategy as needed
- Prototype redesign second half of the page
- User testing
- Development/QC
- Run data on the user behaviors and design effectiveness
Methods and Strategies
Research and User Interviews
There were four areas I needed to understand deeply about this subject to create a cohesive, simple user experience around such a complex topic.
- How user’s lives were affected. How were they suffering? What brought them pain? What brought them peace? How were their finances? How was their health? How were their families?
- User perception of the subject. How and when did they come to know about the issue? What were their doubts and concerns? What did they understand and what was confusing? What did they need to know to find reconciliation? What were they looking for when they went online or called?
- How my client could help. What would bring the user to my client? What was the user expecting to find? What did my client have to offer that the user may not be aware of?
- When my client could not help. Unfortunately, as with most legal situations, there are times when there are people that need help that can’t be helped. This is hard both because my client (and myself) wanted to be sensitive to these people, while still being as direct as possible that they wouldn’t be able to help. What were these cases? How could we be sensitive to them but still direct, so as to not waste their hope and time on something that wasn’t available for them.
Content Tone
Have you ever tried to write something that is legally correct and firm, while at the same time soft and personable for the reader? That was the challenge I faced here. Through research I found that most people contacting the law firm would have already gone through years of grief, suffering, pain, and economic stress. I crafted the tone of the content to cater to this, and to be sensitive to the pain they were experience while still offering hints of hope and relief within legal boundaries. At times this was very difficult. Legal jargon and requirements can make things feel stiff, cold, and uncaring. But I was able to find ways to show relief, care, and concern despite this, and still maintain the legalities that were required to be included in the text.
Header Design
I wanted the header design to flow seamlessly with the commercials and other methods that were being used to drive traffic to the page. I found that these were based on the idea of “Do you have one of these cancers? You may be titled to compensation.” So, I decided to lead off with that exact same phrasing in the header section of the page. I then took it one step further and added a CTA button with the wording “Find Out” to intrigue user curiosity, as well as motivation by giving the appeal that it would be easy to do. I designed this button to take the user through a simple progressive form designed to filter out ineligible cases, and then request the user’s contact information.
First 1/3 of the page
This portion of the page was designed to engage clients that had a high probability of a solid case quickly. I used language and icons to help solid clients identify themselves quickly, without making a false guarantee and at the same time answer some of their biggest doubts. I listed out the cancers caused by asbestos in the first section, with a visual representation as well. Next, I listed risk factors that put individuals at a higher risk of asbestos-related cancer. Finally, I knew from research that many users would still doubt if their cancer was asbestos related and why away from contacting the law firm. So, I included a section titled “Unsure if you have been exposed to asbestos?”. Each section is accompanied with easy to digest visuals, as well as longer portions of text to cater both to the skimmer and to the analytical users. I also implemented drop-down menus and links to make it easy to find more information quickly. CTA’s were also implemented in a variety of forms, such as buttons and banners, as well as pop ups upon clicking certain texts (no annoying surprises).
Next 2/3's of the page
I also found in my research that there was a good number of individuals that would hesitate to contact the law firm until they knew more about the nitty gritty details of how things worked. The rest of the page is designed for these users. It starts with a table of contents that jumps them down to the details they are looking for, and features an “up” button that will take them back to the table of contents at any time. This portion of the page lays out exactly what the firm can do for the clients and how it is done in such a way that it isn’t overwhelming. Special care was taken to break down steps, processes, and ideas by harnessing grouping, color, space, and weight. CTA’s can also be found throughout this portion of the webpage, making it easy for users to contact the firm at any time.
Iterations and Method Pivots
Users Clicking on Non-Clickable Items
In the beginning of the design phase, I had enough data gathered to start analyzing heatmaps. While analyzing these I found that users were frequently attempting to click on non-clickable items such as lists. This was no very surprising, as many users were 65 years old or older, and didn’t quite understand many different website standards and conventions. I saw this as an opportunity to convert more users on the page. Originally, I had planned to include the list with a CTA at the bottom of the page, but upon discovering this, I pivoted to create a pop up that would give the user a little more insight into the item they were clicking on, and invite them to submit their information as well.
Bulky Infographic
The original page had an intriguing infographic that laid out facts about asbestos related cancer. However, it was very long and didn’t apply to every user. The client was very fond of this infographic, so I looked for a way to harness it rather than leave it where it was. There were several other items that were no pertinent to all users as well. These items I moved into a drop-down menu. This drop-down menu was designed to give the general user just enough information that they would feel identified if they had a high potential of being a quality lead, but not so much that they would feel overwhelmed in the wealth of information. And of course, if they wanted to know more about a certain subject, they could simply click on it.
