The Harley Medical Group

Introduction

This was a really interesting project; investigating the point at which conversion rate optimisation meets cosmetic surgery.

Our task as UX consultants on this project was to deliver a strategy to increase lead generation on The Harley Medical Group (THMG) website.

Team

We had a small core team for this project; myself as a UX Manager, my line manger at the time as Senior UX Manager, a Senior Content Strategist and an Account Director.

Discovery

We partnered with a couple of research services on this project, due to the sensitive and very specific nature of the research. The first agency helped us to recruit a sample of interview candidates from each stage of the purchasing funnel for both surgical and non-surgical procedures.

We partnered with the second research agency as a more personable means of conducting a sensitive interview; we worked with them to produce a range of interview scrips, and they conducted the interview on our behalf.

After analysing the data from 30 in-depth interviews and combining this with our survey results, analytics and CSC interviews, we were able to identify 5 distinct personas.

We found that the average user journey consisted of 10 different touch points, albeit in a very non-linear progression and with varying time frames. Often, users researching surgical procedures returned to the relevant detail page three times more than a non-surgical user.

A part of our analysis which particularly interested me was the importance of environmental factors for all users. On numerous occasions with eye tracking we identified users looking to locate an image of the surgeons face and an image of inside the clinic. When questioned on this, users couldn’t specifically articulate why they placed importance on this, but they felt a level of distrust when an image wasn’t provide, or a stock/holding image was shown.

Solution

After we had completed analysing the vast quantities of data, we placed the most importance on creating and delivering informative, transparent and timely content. We identified all the different pieces of content required for each persona and procedure across each stage of the conversion funnel, and produced a content matrix which communicated the importance of each piece of content in each scenario.

This matrix informed the user flows for each persona and procedure, and became the building blocks of each page design. This building block approach to page design complemented the cyclical nature of the average user flow; it allowed for greater tailoring (and eventually personalisation) of the content served on each flow. It also allowed users to become familiar with page structures and provide quicker navigation to key content blocks or key pages.

Above all, the most important consideration when creating the strategy was balancing empathy for the users with a design that maximises performance metrics for THMG. I believe our recommended strategy and design championed an environment of careful consideration, open and engaging knowledge sharing and transparency on behalf of THMG.

Delivery

Being part of an Ecommerce agency, it was unusual for me to work as a consultant and deliver a strategy, and to not progress with high fidelity designs, prototypes or website activation. After completion of the project and delivery of the strategy, it was really great to see THMG launch a number of the initiatives and improvements we had proposed, to date they still have a variation of the modular procedure page design.

I found this a rewarding project; the amount of time and effort put into the research stages laid a solid groundwork for the designing process. Gathering such personal data first hand from both pre and post surgery patients required a lot of sensitivity but really helped to design with an empathetic mindset.