Business Opportunity: With over 2 million active users Lycos Mail has the largest user base in the Lycos network. By leveraging a more competitive feature set and improved performance, Lycos hoped to deliver the best user experience in the online communications market. Because of the "sticky" nature of this application, Lycos Mail also offered important revenue opportunities such as co-branding and direct marketing.

Process and Solution: In a market with numerous competitors, it was important to identify the users and their needs as it related to web-base communications. By conducting user research activities such as surveys, user interviews, and focus groups we were able to gain the insight necessary to develop the specific use cases that would result in a clear functional specification. This specification would serve as the foundation for the interaction design activities that would serve as a model for application design across the Lycos network. Each component of the application was designed from a complete set of interactive workflow that would identify system dependencies, and error conditions while defining appropriate navigation structures.

The designed solution also incorporated a configurable front-end template system that would be used for the internationalization and co-branding of the communication product. This co-branding system would become a prototype for other services on the Lycos network.

Key product solutions :

• Conducted extensive user research that resulted in a complete understanding of the user population and their needs
• Created an efficient interactive design that established a clear mental model for users
• Established a modular navigation system that allows for the action of new components
• Designed a front-end system that supported the business opportunity of deploying co-branded and international versions of the communication system
• Designed and documented user interaction principles that would become the basis for interaction design throughout the Lycos network and included in the Lycos style guidelines

Benefits: Key metrics tracking user registration, application usage and network referrals significantly increased as a result of the user experience design efforts. Lycos Mail also become one of the most profitable products in the network due to it's internationalization and co-branding efforts.

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Additional case studies:

Kaiser Permanent: Web-based Clinical Records
Lycos.com: Creating a Global Style Guide
Lycos.com: User Experience for a Web Portal