The User Experience team conceived, architected, and executed our green bar research through Tec-Ed. The team delivered this compelling research set in time for EV's grand unveiling at RSA in Febuary.
This research delivered a set of compelling, core proof points that we continue to use as a cornerstone of our EV marketing and has been invaluable to introducing this new standard into the e-commerce world. This project is exemplary of how different teams can work together or advance our collective goals for the business.
In this case the User Experience team took its skill set and discovered a way to directly benefit the marketing and sales functions within the business. I'd like to hold this project up as a model for how we all can reach out to assist the overall business in new and creative ways.
Tim C, Director of Product Marketing, SSL
User Experience research and testing helps sell EV Certificates
The User Experience team was involved in the SSL marketing team's effort to sell our new EV (Extended Validation) certificates. The first EV-compatible browser, IE7, turns the URL field green if the Web server has an EV SSL Certificate installed.
In late 2006, our team did research was to learn whether users would notice the green bar with no additional information, and secondly, if once they learned what the green bar meant, if they would respond positively to it. We gathered more than 70 users, typical online shoppers who had a greater than minimal interest in online security to participate in a WebEx session during which they would go through two mock sites —one with EV, and one without, and answer questions.
Brian put together a prototype and took 56 participants through a series of steps for each site, and recorded their sessions.
The results from this research were very positive, both about the green address bar of EV, and about VeriSign.
Krista Van Laan wrote a white paper, but the results were so strong for VeriSign, it seemed that in order to promote this to potential customers, we needed to be scrupulously certain that these numbers would hold up. It was determined that we would hire a neutral third party to let them do similar testing with more users, and let them collect and guarantee the results. We hired Tec-Ed, Inc., an Ann Arbor-based usability and research company, to perform a similar study, testing a greater number of users for better statistical accuracy.
The User Experience team provided Tec-Ed with a test plan and prototype. Tec-Ed interviewed and performed similar studies on 384 users in a blind test (not telling them the session was sponsored by VeriSign). In early 2007, the results were in, and taking into account the range of projected statistical accuracy, were almost identical:
A second, more comprehensive white paper was put together just in time for Tim C to take to the 2007 RSA conference, where it got a lot of attention. For the User Experience group at VeriSign, we were glad to have concrete proof that our methods are reliable. For one-eighth the price of the consulting company, our results were almost identical.
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