How do you improve the campaign editing process that 30,000 customers use daily?

Very carefully.

That’s why we’ve built in usability testing sessions and a private beta period before Emma’s new content editor is ready for prime time.

In the winter, we invited customers to try the first prototype in usability sessions at Emma. We looked for insights into how to make the editor easier to use and nip any confusing points in the bud. Geoff’s already written a great blog post detailing how we do usability sessions at Emma, so I’ll jump right into the new editor features and what we learned from watching customers use it.

Ch- ch- changes

Flexibility is the mantra for designing the new campaign editor. You want three images in your newsletter, no more and no less? No problem. You can just drag another one in. Need to bump your first article down a few slots? Drag the whole article where you want it and drop it. Get the picture? You’re going to have drag and drop control, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, wait, you weren't expecting that?

In our test sessions, however, we saw that folks weren’t dragging and dropping! It just wasn’t obvious on their first use, so we knew right away that there was an opportunity to improve that first time experience.

This isn’t surprising at all when you consider how easy it is to miss something when you’re not looking for it. Have you seen the awareness test that asks you to count passes on a basketball team? If not, watch this one-minute clip from a cyclist-awareness advertising campaign, then come on back. I’ll wait.

About half of folks who watch that video “fail” the awareness test. In our case, drag and drop was practically moonwalking across the screen for our design team, but our first time users were looking for something else.

Changes that you'll love

Based on how we saw customers interacting with the campaign editing prototype, we made a few tweaks. Now we have clear signs that get you started on the right foot quickly (and get out of your way once you’ve got the hang of it).

What else are you going to love?

• Editing and previewing on the same screen, without having to click back and forth to save
• Arranding images in a column, row or grid, without having to switch layouts
• Adding background colors and borders to individual sections
• The same Emma style and simplicity you signed up for.

We appreciated the insights from our customers in the usability testing sessions so much that we opened up the editor to a private beta period. We’re asking early testers to tell us the good, the bad and the buggy — and we’re using their feedback to put finishing touches on the editor.

New to Emma? Learn about sending stylish email marketing campaigns.