Project

UX Design /
Ancestry

Responsibilities

Site audit, analytics, concept design, prototypes, concept pitch

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Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online family history service. Since starting as a publishing company for professional genealogists, the website had grown into a huge platform supporting an extensive and unique collection of historical records (over 16 billion records and 200 million photographs, scanned documents and written stories).

However, the user facing part of the service had been stitched together over the years without a cohesive strategy and was in need of an overhaul. Ancestry also had a very passionate customer base who was resistant to change.

“Sometimes I get lost… I think I probably just need more time getting experience using it.”

– Ancestry User

Process

• Audited site metrics and collected user data to identify the key pain points during the customer journey.

• Defined key workflows (discovery, search and family tree creation) and improved the navigation by reducing the number of steps and simplifying the interfaces.

• Optimized the design for different devices and viewports.

• Presented findings and concepts as working prototypes to the product leadership and built the case for redesign.

Outcome

The solution became part of the product roadmap and the core ideas have been applied to a recent update of the service.