Improving the Consumer Experience of a Powerful Branded Database
Prior to the planned 2005 re-launch of its website, Zagat Survey hired Catalyst to provide UI and visual design support. Launched in 1999, Zagat.com has become one of the few profitable subscription-based websites. However, as the brand expands and traffic grows, it was clear that the market would demand ever more utility and functionality from the Zagat database. Further, as Zagat expands its roster of guides from its core restaurant reviews to areas such nightlife and hotels, it was important that the site be able to scale in association. Inevitably, Zagat faced the questions of every successful broad-based subscription site: how much content would be available to non-members; how could it convert traffic into members; and how could it ensure that members appreciated all the tools available to them?

Services Provided

User Interface Design, Visual Design, Expert Analysis, Audience Profiling, Persona Development, Interaction Strategy, Information Architecture

Methodology/Solution
Catalyst used audience profiles and scenarios to construct personae that linked people's expectations and traffic behavior to Zagat business goals. Catalyst provided detailed user-interface design specifications, and worked in collaboration with the client to build a new "look-and-feel" on top of a new navigation.

• Clear UI templates, organizing tools, indexes and original content - which support not only improved navigation, but also new visual design; and

• A refreshed look-and-feel for a popular site, which is nevertheless consistent with the carefully-built and protected brand.

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