BizRate testing new search result pages on its US site

BizRate US is currently bucket-testing a complete make-over of its search result pages, including a new branding. Quick review of those changes…

Bucket-testing branding changes…

That’s a question I’ve asked myself a few times: how to bucket-test changes on your branding (new logo, new tagline…) ? Doing it on a sub-set of your site can be disturbing for users; while testing it on your whole site make the experiment quite complex to set up… BizRate has chosen the first option: the homepage still displays the “old look”, and users are exposed to the new branding only when doing a search.

Branding changes

• A new logo, quite basic: BizRate written in a non-remarkable font, white on dark blue; a blue flag icon next to it (what does it mean?)
• A new tagline: “Raise your shopping I.Q.” is replaced by “search.compare.conquer.” (quite close to the “find.compare.save.” used by Kelkoo UK); I don’t really get what “conquer” means though…
• New color scheme: the dark blue is replacing the light purple…

Personal taste: I’m not convinced by any of those changes…

New site header

The new site header has a simplified design compared to the previous one:

• Clear emphasis on the search. Search form 3x bigger than in the previous design. The “find it” button is replaced by “search“
• No categories highlighted anymore: a simple drop-down menu is available to display all product categories
• The personalization features have disappeared from the header: no more “your account” / “newsletter sign-up” options… Strange.

Overall, I like this approach to simplicity, and the focus on search.

Results

Grid view is replacing list view in this new design (another CSE that switches to grid view by default):

• While the images are slightly bigger in this redesign, the image represents less than 50% of the height of an offer… I have the feeling there are too many information on the default view; and the main benefit of the grid view (a more visual approach to browsing) is not used at its full potential.
• An extended view is displayed when clicking on an “Information” icon; but this view doesn’t bring a lot of extra information apart the description of the product. Using click event is interesting: most of the time, extended panels on grid view are triggered when rolling over (usually with a timer). Click vs roll-over: for sure, the conversion rate is influenced by such design choice.
• “See other stores that carry it” link leads the user to a product page (with the “old” BizRate design). While not entirely convinced by the wording, I think this is interesting to test something different than the standard “compare prices” text.

Filtering

Little change on the guided navigation: still displayed on the left-hand side, behavior almost unchanged… However, an interesting filtering option is available on each offer: “see more like this”.

• Clicking on the “see more like this” link displays a panel to let the user select the criteria to get similar offers: “same category”, “same brand”, “same merchant”, “same price range”.
• When launching a search on similar offers, the search result page is refreshed; the initial offer is displayed in first position and highlighted. User selection can be changed through an “edit choices” panel.

While I appreciate this new filtering option, I feel this is not properly integrated with the guided navigation. Considered the visual importance of the “see more like this” link on each offer and the fact guided navigation is displayed below LREC ad placement (so not in a very visible position), we may wonder why BizRate has not pushed the concept further: use it as a substitute to the guided navigation. No more guided navigation = more real estate to display more offers. For sure, it would create some challenges regarding multi-selection / multi-filtering.

Offers vs products

A very important move between the previous design and this new design: the switch from products (aggregated view of merchant offers) to offers. Interesting switch… For sure, it means one less click from the search result pages to the merchant site. I imagine this switch is more a business decision than a decision to improve user experience.

Final thoughts

I have mixed feelings about this redesign. I’m sure one of the reasons is to not have the big picture (i.e: how will the product pages evolve with the new style? How will the new branding be explained on the homepage?)… The one exciting idea I will keep in mind is the “see more like this” option as a way to complement / replace / reduce classic guided navigation.

Current BizRate design: