Corbis' microstock image site, SnapVillage, was up and running, but usability issues were inhibiting growth and scalability. Both the end-user image submission and the internal approval and tagging processes had severe inefficiencies and usability flaws.
I analyzed and identified critical workflow and UI interaction points to target for design optimization, for both the public-facing website submission process and internal workflows for image approvals. Based on that analysis, I optimized flow and page designs, resulting in a significant increase in user submission completions, as well as a significant decrease in administrative overhead in managing image review escalations. Outsourced approval productivity boosted the site’s image pipeline, and escalations to the senior editorial team were reduced by 80%.
The client was clearly aware of the pain points, but needed help framing the problem and identifying friction points.
The review workflow, shown here, was very primitive. Once an image was placed in a reviewer's queue, it either had to be approved or escalated prior to logging out. There was no deferral step, and because the work was outsourced, there was no communication between reviewers and senior editorial staff handling the escalations.
Revised flows provided more reviewer control through quick-select of grouped images, drag-and-drop bulk processing, deferral and session-independent, staged review queues.
Administrators had fewer escalations to manage. Additional efficiencies were gained by allowing admins to bulk edit, and to reroute metadata, pricing and rating tasks back to the reviewer pool.
Bulk edit was expedited by enabling drag-and-drop between staged queues.
In addition to the backend workflow optimizations, revised customer-facing screen designs put cognitive focus on controls that drive users through common and preferred paths. Critical action buttons were moved above the fold, and visual emphasis was placed on the primary task(s) on each page. This reduced confusion and increased successful submissions, increasing variety and quality of content on the microstock site.
Subtle improvements in layout, visual prominence, interaction and progressive disclosure reduced friction across the site.
