BoothIQ:
Enhancing the Exhibitor Experience

Our team was briefed with the challenge of renovating the exhibitor dashboard for a trade show software company named BoothIQ. As the attendee dashboard was fully functional, it was our duty to employ UX best practices to revamp the existing exhibitor dashboard. The goal was to create a more seamless on-boarding process for new users, including the development of a full exhibitor profile.

My team consisted of myself and two accompanying UX designers: Jonathan Ezell and Tatiana Dannenbaum. I acted as UX Program Manager to provide leadership throughout our design process by increasing communication, validating design decisions using UX fundamentals and streamlining the overall design process. We executed a 3 week design sprint where we worked closely with the CEO of BoothIQ to be certain that we reflected their friendly and helpful tone within our design.

Project Methods

• Business Analysis | UI Comparative Analysis

• Contextual Inquiry | Phone Interviews | Affinity Mapping | Usability Testing

• Sketching | Whiteboarding | Wire-framing (Low to Hi-Fidelity) | Prototyping

• Tools used included Figma | Invision | Pen & Paper

Based on the research we gathered, we discovered that exhibitors using BoothIQ were experiencing multiple friction points with the on-boarding and profile development processes. These friction points were due to a lack of visual affordances for clear calls-to-action (e.g. form validation, uploading a picture, etc.) in addition to an inability to intuitively navigate the website to find specific pages and content within them.

We hypothesized that by furnishing form fields with descriptions/labels/directions, applying visual design affordances to increase findability and alleviate ambiguity, and restructuring navigation to better direct users throughout website we could create a more cohesive experience that indicates the success of the exhibitor at various stages to increase their overall satisfaction.

The beginning of our design process commenced with a kick-off meeting with the BoothIQ CEO.
To our surprise, BoothIQ was looking to focus on wedding trade shows as a vertical market based on how much traction they were getting in that particular industry. It was here that the team gained a fundamental understanding of what a trade show is, how they operate, who produces them, and most importantly those who work the booths: The Exhibitor.
The biggest takeaways we discovered:
• 70% of exhibitors using BoothIQ did so via desktop/laptop
• Users are not successfully completing their profile or uploading their 3 listings

Applied methods of research included Business & Comparative Analyses, Heuristic Evaluations, Contextual Inquiries, Phone Interviews, Affinity Mapping, User Flows, and Persona creation.

Upon obtaining that essential information, we connected with people who had experience as a trade show exhibitor and had them use the existing website for usability testing. We documented their encounters by giving them some specific tasks to accomplish and were able to swiftly identify persistent friction points. Interestingly enough, every user had the same slough of issues.

Users experienced friction in the following ways:

• Trouble navigating site to find particular pages and content within them

• Reading text and verifying where form fields exist

• How to edit, complete, and get confirmation upon completing a page or form

• Lack of visibility and insufficient use of icons with certain calls-to-action
  (Such as uploading a photo to their company profile or a new listing)

Following the research methods we conducted, it was time to start wrapping our heads around how to solve these pain points for our users. To accomplish our solution, there were two main components we needed to focus on designing: make the information within the website easier to find and include visual affordances to complete a specific call-to-action. In order to get all of our thoughts down and share our ideas with each other, we sketched on paper and collaborated using a whiteboard.

As a team, our design process led us through copious amounts (and versions) of sketches, comparative analyses, and lo-fidelity wire frames until we came to the finished adaptation of a well-structured exhibitor dashboard. Through meticulous collaboration and deliberation, the team was able to finalize an intricate hi-fidelity prototype along with a tenacious pitch deck for our client. She was beyond impressed and could not wait to bring our design to the engineering team for development!

Upon completing our contextual inquiries, it was clear where users were experiencing friction points. Users were consistently unsure where they were at in the profile completion process. As you can see above, every time the user accomplished a task they were left stranded with no guidance (affordance in this case) as to where to go or what to do next. For example, after filling out their profile information there was no clear call-to-action for the user to know they completed the page. The culprit was a small check in the top right one must click to complete their profile page, a dead giveaway of inspiration for our redesign.

The trick to getting users to complete a profile was implementing a new type of on-boarding process, one that was pain-free and all upfront. We decided that if the users sign in and are walked through a step-by-step process to input their information (rather than do it all at once), there will be no way for ambiguity to arise and users can go on to take care of what other needs they have. When using the original dashboard, the majority of users never proceeded to post listings for an event after this point because they were unsure if they completed their profile. The site lacked a way to notify the user that there is more to do!

A very important design decision of ours was to reorganize the navigation components into 2 separate and distinct navigation bars. As shown above, all of the information you can find on the exhibitor side of BoothIQ is presented with the same weight and lacks dimension. Many users from our research found it difficult to navigate the website from the beginning, being that there is no clear path of how to navigate within the site and which content lies within each page.

In order to help the user better navigate the website, we divided it into 2 separate sections: global and event specific. We choose to design the navigation this way because certain pages are only to be created and performed one time and can be done without having a specific trade show in mind. These pages include the profile, help, and logout pages. The remaining pages (listings, lead analytics, attendee registration, and trade show details) are event specific pages that are representative of a specific event. By creating dimension between all of these pages, the user can effectively know where they are within the website and navigate using either a global or event specific mentality.