1. Property of ForeSee Results - Confidential
Prototype Review
in the Site Redesign of
AutoNews.com
John J. Fitzgerald
Director of Business Planning & Online Commerce
Automotive News Group, Crain Communications

2. Property of ForeSee Results - Confidential
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Autonews.com Background
• Leading automotive industry website
– 1.5 million+ page views per month
• ForeSee Results’ client since 2005
• Online revenue more than tripled (+205%) in the past three
years despite a down B-to-B advertising market
• Online advertising accounts for 2/3 of total online revenue
– Very high effective CPMs ($50+)
• Bid of up to $1 million for redesign process including usability
studies
• April 2007: Began committee-led redesign process
• December 2007: Soft launch
• January 1 2008: Public launch

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About the Prototype Review
Process
• Learned of service at last ForeSee Results user group
• Goal of prototype review:
– Provide feedback from usability perspective into potential
wireframes
– Save time, reduce costs, mitigate risk on the front end
• Project timing: Late September to mid-October
• Decisions for the redesign team
– Which changes could we make?
– Which should we make prior to the launch? After launch?
• In total, we made 37 changes prior to launch, out of 75
recommendations as a result of “usability violations”

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Excerpt from Prototype Review
• Reviewed 4 wireframes: Home page, Section Front template,
Article template, Data Center home page

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AutoNews.com Home Page
Examples of things we did
• Logo and home button
rendered unclickable
• Events and Subscriptions
moved to third level
navigation
• Article text changed to
sans serif typeface
• Registration and e-mail
signup simplified
• Added ability to change
text size
Things we didn’t do
• Move the Leaderboard ad
($$$)

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AutoNews.com Section Front
Examples of things we did
• Subnavigation options
spelled out (“Finance &
Insurance” vs. “F&I”
• Consistency in labeling
across section fronts
• Logical grouping of
headlines
• Thumbnail images with top
stories
• Date and time on story
summaries
• “Back to Top” link
Things we didn’t do
• Make videos contextual to
specific section

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So…How Are We Doing?
• Satisfaction scores are up in April 2008 versus our 2007
averages
– Functionality 81 vs. 78
– Look and Feel 80 vs. 76
– Navigation 77 vs. 73
– Search 74 vs. 72
– Overall Satisfaction 77 vs. 74
• “Fresher look. Good improvement over previous site”
• “New layout is much improved”
• “Better layout”
• Next step: ForeSee Results do to usability review on the live
site
– Planned for May or June