AWS Jam: Self-Service Experience
Background
As a Senior UX Designer for AWS Jam, I led the redesign of their website to improve the user experience for learners and engagement managers. AWS Jam is a gamified learning experience that offers self-paced lab activities in a simulated, real-world environment using AWS services and solutions. The previous website lacked clear direction on what the product was and how to book an event, resulting in customer confusion and higher IT support tickets. The only way to book an event was through a long, tedious process, with the assumption in which event owners knew what challenges to select. Additionally, there was no pricing information available. As a result, countless emails were sent to inquire about pricing, leading to frustration for users and support teams.
Goals
The primary goal was to create an appealing and functional website that would be user-friendly, enabling users to have more self-service capabilities. We aimed to help new users understand what the product is and how to get started, as well as create an event catalog, enabling customers to book their own events without IT support. We also aimed to create a payment flow, allowing customers to purchase their own events.
Research
To better understand our two user groups, I conducted preliminary surveys and interviews. The System Usability Score (SUS) revealed an extremely low score of 55. I then created formalized personas and visualized the user journey to better understand their experience.
Design
To create a more user-friendly experience, I started by putting together wireframes based on the personas and user journey we had developed. I then surveyed a pool of users to gather early feedback on the wireframes. Based on their input, I refined the experience and continued to iterate until we had a design that was intuitive and visually appealing.
We created custom graphics to showcase a more gamified feel and put together a working prototype. Throughout this phase, we posted different design versions of each page and ran a quick preference test through our Slack channels that made up 1000s of our current customers in order to get a quick read on which design would be more successful. From there, I created a more finalized prototype.
Testing
I conducted in-depth user tests with five users, asking them to perform all the steps in booking an event. Users found the interface to be professional and visually appealing, with high usability ratings. We also distributed another set of surveys for another SUS read.
Here are some highlights of the usability tests conducted:
Finalized Design
Results
The redesigned website resulted in an 8% increase in adoption rate, a 3% rise in CSAT, and a 5% lift in events booked per month.
Through feedback, we have found users have an easier time understanding what AWS Jam is and how to book an event.
We are excited to see the impact of the redesign and will continue to monitor and optimize the user experience to achieve our goals.