Created a website builder for novice users
Wix ADI is a website builder by Wix.com, with a vision to enable novice users to create a website for their business, by simplifying tech, design, and content creation. As a member of the UX team, I was involved in all research and UX decisions. My focus was the general stage structure and behavior, and more focused features as needed.
The Challenge
Before Wix ADI, Wix products were aimed at the intermediate users - that can design at some level their site and create its content. Wix ADI came to help a new type of business owners, without any technical knowledge, to get their online presence.
ADI is fairly simple: Using a few questions about the business type and name, ADI gathers info from several social services and creates a homepage with fitting text, images, and design.
Once in the builder – the user can customize the site to fit better for his needs – in a simple and playful way. The designs adjust according to content changes, aimed to provide a non-brainer experience.
Behavior
We started with low-res mocks that describe the mechanics of the builder itself. We wanted it to feel a playful, almost game-like experience and aspired it will be there in every part of the UI.
The Builder
The design is minimalistic, with as few distractions as possible to the site preview itself, in the stage center.
Content and design are edited from the sidebars. Content elements on the site are clickable and interact with the sidebars.
Onboarding
The onboarding goal is to help the users find their business type or their own business page in social networks (if exists) - all of this in order to help them get an initial version of their site better fitting their business - with images and relevant copy.
The onboarding plays a critical part in ensuring a satisfied user. According to research, Users that found their specific business type had a better chance to upgrade to a paying account.
In order to increase their chances of finding their specific business type, we used their selections to complete the search query and showing sub-types.
By this tweak, we managed to reduce the number of users who skip this step – meaning more users picked a specific result.
Reacting to users feedback (1)
Usability tests showed us that while some users do use the side panel to edit, many others trying to engage with the stage. They click on the image to change it, click on the text element to edit it.
That reason led us to add a new ability. We still kept the editing capabilities in the panels as the main way but allowed quick navigation directly from the stage to the different editing areas.
As we expected, users' engagement with the builder increased. It exposed users to deep abilities - like linking an image or cropping it. It provided an intuitive experience for users who wished it, without hurting novice users' experience.
Reacting to users feedback (2)
We always kept receiving users' feedback and learn their main pain points via their support tickets, online reviews, and usability testings.
We found out that many users want advanced customizations, but still prefer not using the advanced editor, as they liked the simple UI.
We redefined our product strategy to align with that - but in a way that won't damage the novice experience. We started to add advanced customization for our features, enabling users to tweak preferences.
To preserve the core promise of ADI, we always allow reverting to "default" or use one of our presets.
Conclusion
After 2+ years of being part of a talented team working on this project, I've moved on to new adventures. I've had the honor to be part of it from the very beginning, and see it inspires newer Wix products today.