BACKGROUND

As work was being done to build out the new Ads Transparency Center, the team also needed to audit Google's reporting experience and user journeys. I supported the efforts to expand the research across competitive and analogous landscapes.

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GOALS

1. Research industry norms for content reporting.

2. Identify common user experiences and expectations.
3. Build journey maps to communicate user flows, pain points, and positive aspects.
4. Develop an actionable set of recommendations to improve the user interface and journey for Google Ads.

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RESEARCH

Alongside another UX researcher, we set out to initially catalogue and define​ the scope of our research. While it would ultimately be applied to the ad reporting functions for Google Ads, we determined that we could gain much insight from multiple report inception points. This included but was not limited to the following:

• Ad reporting

• Content reporting

• Profile reporting

• Page reporting

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We also determined that we would need to understand the reporting process across a number of products since Google Ads are so extensively implemented. Some of this research included but was not limited to the following:

• Social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc...)

• Online marketplace platforms (Etsy, Amazon, etc...)

• Browser platforms (Safari, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc...)

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LEARNINGS

Due to the specificity and sensitivity of the research I am unable to provide specific insights, patterns, and problems that were identified in the process. I can, however, share that I was able to identify and map critical user flows for various platforms, violation types, content, and feedback mechanisms. Alongside this I explored deeper patterns in report moderation, copy, UX, and UI to build recommended taxonomies, layouts, and journeys.

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A few, though not all, of the deep dives that were then divided into further journeys and components included such things as:

• Differences between legal and policy violations

• Platform feedback during and after report submission

• Violation appeals

• Levels of transparency about the report and moderation

• UX microcopy patterns

 

This project afforded me the opportunity to perform UX research at a new level of depth and thoroughness. While it can be tedious work at times, the value gained from such extensive research cannot be understated.

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Presentation

The final report contained more than 250 pages of content documenting the research and recommendations that were determined to be of value. This was based on documented and comprehensive reviews and data gathering from 24 properties, multiple content formats, and various platforms including web (desktop and mobile) and app (tablet and phone). The report was delivered digitally but also through a series of meetings to make content digestible and feature focused.