When Dell needed to redesign the enterprise product section of Dell.com, how did they do it? How did content strategists, UX designers, PMs, and user researchers come together to understand business and customer needs? Julie Vittengl, Senior Taxonomist and User Experience Researcher at Dell, shares how her team helped ensure that the enterprise website redesign was successful. She’ll discuss how the Digital Customer Experience research team is organized and how they get insights into how customers navigate the site.

1. How Dell successfully redesigned
the Alienware website
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Julie Vittengl
Senior Taxonomist & User Experience Researcher, Dell

2. UserTesting’s on demand customer
insights platform enables companies
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exceptional customer experiences.
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3. We Partner With Thousands Of Customers
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4. Across All Platforms, At All Stages Of Development
Watch customers interact with:
DESKTOP SMARTPHONE TABLET
WEBSITES APPS &
PROGRAMS
PROTOTYPES &
WIREFRAMES
SURVEYS PHYSICAL
PRODUCTS
Anywhere people interact with your brand:
AT HOME AT A STORE ON THE GO
On any pla6orm or device:
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5. 8
Julie Vittengl
Senior Taxonomist & User Experience Researcher, Dell
Julie Vittengl has been with Dell since January 2014 as the Senior Taxonomist on the
Digital Customer Experience team. Prior to her role at Dell she was at Motorola
Solutions. She has also worked at a scientific and engineering search engine,
Globalspec (IEEE), as both a subject matter expert and taxonomy manager. In
addition to her interest in organizing just about everything, she also enjoys reading,
running, skiing and spending time with her family.
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6. Taxonomy Research at
Dell
Julie Vittengl
Senior Taxonomist
Dell

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Agenda
• Digital Customer Experience, and Research & Testing at Dell
• What is taxonomy, and how do you test it?
• Putting it into practice: Alienware redesign

8. Digital Customer
Experience (DCX) at Dell

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DCX Process
Before Design Day
Design Day and Beyond
Refine solutions
Iterate &
Validate
Genuine
understanding
Listen
Empathy in action
Synthesize
& Define
Diverge and converge
Brainstorm
Solutions
Discovering opportunity
Research
Framing the context
Create
Personas
& Scenarios

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Idea%on
and intake Project
planning
Design
Develop
Execu%on
Analysis
Core Services
A/B/n
Testing
Upstream
Analytics
Targeting
Campaigns
Email
Testing
Focus
Groups
Surveys
Multivariate
Tests
Usability RITE
Testing
Card Sorting
Research & Testing Framework

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Research & Testing Tenets
Customer-Obsessed
Subject Matter Experts
Deliver Advanced Analytics in a Consumable Manner
Guide Decision-Making Through Insights And Experimentation
Serve as a Channel of Knowledge
Agile

12. What is taxonomy, and
how do you test it?

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What is Taxonomy?
A taxonomy is a framework for describing
information in the context of an organization to
accomplish business objectives.
Taxonomy enables and supports internal
processes such as content management, and
external-facing features such as navigation,
search, and personalization.

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Why is taxonomy important?

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Taxonomy Testing

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Recruiting
Consumers
– No age restriction
– No income restriction
– Any gender
– Any country
– Average web expertise
– Any OS, browser, etc.
– Have you purchased technology products
(laptops, cameras, printers, etc.) online in the
past six months?
Business
– Age 24+
– Income $40K+
– Any gender
– Typically United States, Canada, United Kingdom
– Any web expertise
– Any OS, browser, etc.
– Do you use the internet to research and buy IT
products (software, servers, data storage,
networking, etc.) for your business?
I identify as:
• A consumer purchasing products for myself.
• A business user purchasing products for my business.

17. Putting it into practice:
Alienware.com redesign

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Research Methodologies
Content Audit
– Of 144 URLs, 79 were duplicates
– Improve customer funnel from marking content to
purchase path
Focus Groups
– Surface external reviews
– Provide context around Arena
– Improve page scroll
– Improve content – more informative
– Simplify Deals page
RITE Testing
– Identified most important features and components
(graphics cards, video cards, RAM, price, etc.)
– Scannable product stacks.
– Entry-level gamers overwhelmed by content
Taxonomy Testing
– Card Sort
– TreeJack Study
– First-Click Test
– Category Naming Survey
Stakeholder Interview
– Consistent user journey
– Improved user funnel
– Brand preservation/education
– Improved compare/configure
– Better social integration
– Improved imagery/media/design
– SEO enhancements
– Responsive site
SEO
– ALT tags/graphics
– Text content
– Metadata
– Optimized URLs

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Recruiting for Gamers

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Taxonomy Research Results:
Card Sort
• Card Sort
– We ascertained that 63% of people grouped the
Alienware Alpha with the Alienware Steam Machine,
suggesting a new category was needed.
– The team also recognized that participants expected
three major categories: Laptops, Desktops and Consoles
(or Steam)

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Taxonomy Research Results:
TreeJack
• Tree Test
– When we wanted to understand whether users could
locate the Alienware Alpha in Consoles (as opposed to
desktops) we tested using TreeJack, which showed us a
high level of findability.

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Taxonomy Research Results:
First Click
• First-Click Test
– We were unsure whether to have “About”
content in the masthead or footer. We
found that 95% of people clicked directly
on the masthead and only 5% scrolled to
the footer, informing us that we could
omit it from the footer.
– The team wanted to discover whether
users of Alienware.com could locate
content about when Alienware teamed
with other companies to develop
compatible products. We discovered 86%
of users selected Partners instead of
Products, thus validating the category.

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Results
Team Wins
• Customer-focused scope driven by the Digital Customer Experience Team
• Research-driven content strategy
• Improved customer journey
Key Findings
• Revenue Per Visit (RPV) +7.1% normalized. Program target +3.2%
• Conversion uplift: Home Page +75%; Accessories and Gear +73%; Deals +44%
• Total Revenue per Unit (TRU) 10% uplift
Bounce Rate
• Deals exits dropped 9%

24. Questions?