Bizzabo’s Onsite Catalog Digitization
2023
The on-site experience for event orchestration companies comes with seemingly endless moving parts and bells and whistles. As the company aimed to achieve more with fewer resources, the initially polished and well-designed Onsite Services catalog required 20+ edits a quarter. Unfortunately, neither the customer organization nor the design team could complete these edits promptly to keep up with the rapid changes needed to keep up with the services available.
As a compromise, a web catalog was developed. This catalog could be created using a web tool that allowed all relevant contributors to make real-time updates, ensuring that the catalog could promptly reflect the changes in real-time.
The stakeholders' key feedback was to ensure this no longer felt like a catalog.
The primary challenge involved reorganizing information previously structured logically in a designed product catalog.
The goal was to transform it into a website where pricing could be concealed, customer requests could be effortlessly submitted, and the information, while still divided into chapters, felt seamlessly "plug-and-play" within the overall offerings.
Prototyping
I collaborated with our developer to create a design that minimizes hard coding within our web builder, ensuring that the text remains fully editable. The primary goal of internal tools like this is to foster a self-service design mentality across the company. We decided on a sticky navigation system that would showcase the chapter content, along with a continuous scroll feature that includes a hidden drop-down for pricing information.
The initial version (V1) has proven successful with both stakeholders effectively handling intricate pricing and service updates, and customers experiencing an intuitive and easily scannable resource for all their on-site needs.
Success Framework
The company aimed to reduce the cost-per-serve, and to establish a comprehensive design mission, I sought to understand the benchmark. Our initial objective was "any help, helps." When we tested draft directions with users, there was an 80% increase in understanding.
Next Steps.
Bizzabo's current web language has not been thoroughly examined in relation to web catalogs. Given the brand's strong editorial focus, there is significant potential to explore sticky navigation options that better align with the brand identity and rely less on traditional button-based interfaces. Drawing inspiration from publications such as the Paris Review and The New Yorker, as well as examining service-oriented web catalogs, will be instrumental in shaping a robust version 2.
Since its inception, I have been leading a comprehensive UX research and testing initiative across all creative web projects. By observing behavioral insights and identifying potential usability issues, we plan to embark on a redesign in the upcoming year.