Case Study - Applications

Advertise responsibly: Arbitron's user-centered tool helps beer companies target appropriate audiences

Arbitron is an audience measurement company that specializes in the radio and cable industries. One of its specialties is collecting demographic data about radio audiences. This data is of particular interest to beer companies, since they have pledged to only advertise on radio programs where at least 70% of listeners are of legal drinking age (21 years old).

To help beer makers comply with this industry guideline, Arbitron created the "21+ Audience Composition Report." This Web application provides a central source for beer companies and their ad agencies to evaluate the audience composition of radio stations by age group.

The Challenge: cluttered data is hard to interpret

Arbitron's original Composition Report displayed audience composition for each station in a typical giant table of numbers and gridlines. Time slots that didn't meet the minimum 70% adult listener criteria were highlighted in red (see Before screenshot). While the information was accurate and complete, this layout made it hard for users to pick out eligible advertising opportunities at a glance. The amount of data cluttering the screen was overwhelming. Arbitron knew it could present these statistics in a way that would be more beneficial to clients.

HFI's Approach: simplify and prioritize

HFI and Arbitron had already collaborated on several design projects and possessed a solid understanding of the target users for the 21+ Composition Report. Thus, the redesign began immediately with rapid prototyping and internal testing, with the intent to:

• Create a cleaner design and streamlined structure
• Emphasize the most important data
• Organize related tasks and provide greater flexibility

Within 72 hours, HFI and Arbitron created a live prototype and tested it internally. Instead of the large table of numbers, the data was now presented in an "either-or" fashion. That is, users could click a checkbox to view either advertising slots that were acceptable for alcohol promotion or those that were not (see After screenshot).

Since Arbitron uses Agile development methods, the new interface was implemented very quickly. The revised Composition Report was also built using AJAX technology to improve its speed, interactivity, and usability.

Benefits: information at a glance

The redesigned Composition Report was hailed as an "obvious" user-centered interface because:

• Layout follows users' task flows and highlights key data
• Tabs provide easier access to frequently viewed sections
• Standardized navigation scheme simplifies data by groups
• Live information updates do not require page refresh

One reason for the quick success of this project was the combination of Arbitron's Agile development environment and HFI's unique knowledge of how to insert user-centered design into this rapid programming methodology.

Albert Einstein wasn't referring to beer advertising, but his famous quote perfectly sums up Arbitron's 21+ Audience Composition Report: "Make it as simple as possible – but no simpler."

Before: Users had to wade through a sea of numbers to figure out which radio programs were eligible for beer advertising.

After: HFI quickly mocked up this prototype that made it easy to see at a glance which programs were acceptable or inappropriate.

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