VIASAT 2021
Redesigning Viasat’s home internet page to increase engagement from rural customers
ROLE Designer, Researcher
TIME Mar - Jun 2021
TEAM Hanna Clemente, Samuel Do, Jennifer Hofilena, Jocelyn Horng, Donna Kim, Sophia Lui, Steven Molotnikov, Krishiv Vora, Hannah Yick, Jonathan Zhang
This project was done through a collaboration between UCSD Design Lab and Viasat, a local satellite internet company. Our team was tasked to redesign Viasat’s internet homepage to establish a deeper relationship with customers from rural communities.
I focused on UX research by conducting a competitive analysis and contributed to the design of our final high-fidelity redesign.
CONTEXT
Working alongside a team of 10 students under the guidance of Professor Michael Meyer and Viasat’s Design Director Neil McIver, we were tasked to redesign Viasat's satellite internet homepage for better brand content and understanding from rural customers.
We performed and synthesized our research as a team of 10, but split off into separate teams to deliver two redesigns to the Viasat team.
USER RESEARCH
Due to Viasat's privacy policies, we were unable to gain access customer contact information or their website analytics. Furthermore, Viasat’s target audience of older, rural homeowners was also not easily accessible to us to conduct usability tests and user interviews.
Viasat provided us with user personas to help us clearly understand and identify the needs and wants of the target user population.
PROBLEM 1
PROBLEM 2
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We conducted a competitive analysis of similar internet and communication companies to identify common themes to find design strengths and weaknesses. My partner Jocelyn and I focused on this area of research, and our competitive analysis can be found here.
Our team’s design separates the residential page from the commercial page to specify Viasat as home internet provider for rural residents, eliminating confusion about what services Viasat provides.
Our redesign directly engages customers from rural communities through a simplified user flow, bringing users towards a better understanding of Viasat’s business and increasing transparency of Viasat’s internet plans.
The redesigned hero section effectively communicates Viasat's services through both satellite imagery and large, descriptive headings, immediately specifying that Viasat specializes in satellite internet plans. Prompting the user to take action to purchasing a plan also helps in garnering engagement.
After the survey, customers not only are able to see their most suitable plan, but can compare it directly with others to give them full control over their decision.
Employing informative visuals and minimal text, this 1-page scroll straightforwardly communicates Viasat’s alignment with rural customers outside the cable internet line and highlights the features of Viasat's internet plans and its on-demand customer service. CTAs are attached to each section to engage customers to spend more time on the site.
At the end of the customer's scrolling journey, they are prompted to again enter their information for an internet plan as a natural conclusion to the Viasat home internet page.
This was my first time working alongside a company, and working on a complete case study outside of school projects! I was introduced to industry tools such as Miro, and new design processes such as creating user flows and affinity mapping. This was also my first time being exposed to the importance of market research when conducting design for companies, which I was able to conduct in my competitive analysis.
I worked alongside a larger team than I have before, so I also was able to learn how to better operate in a team dynamic and communicate effectively with team members. Under the guidance of Director Neil and our design mentor, Professor Meyer, I also learned how to adapt and work around constraints on design projects.