Bold’s marketing team needed data-backed insights for landing page optimizations but struggled with user research due to varying intent. To bridge this gap, I led the launch of unmoderated usability testing, partnering with an SEO Manager and Content Writer to run our first test on the Resume Templates Landing Page.
Goal: Understand how users search for resume templates, identifying motivations, pain points, and expectations from search behavior and on-page interactions.
#UXResearch
#DataDrivenDesign
#QualitativeAnalysis
#UserJourneyMapping
#SearchBehaviorAnalysis
#ConversionOptimization
#StrategicPrioritization
The problem
While data informed many product decisions at Bold, marketing-led optimizations lacked direct user insights. We couldn’t observe users the same way we could in product testing, making it difficult to validate whether SEO and content updates truly improved the user experience.
To solve this, we needed to:
Identify what users expected when searching for resume templates.
Learn how search cues influenced their decision-making.
Uncover pain points in how users navigated the Resume Templates Landing Page.
To achieve our objectives, we designed a 21-question unmoderated test, structured into five key phases to explore user behavior, motivations, and decision-making patterns.
User Mindset Warm-Up – Understanding how users approach resume creation by exploring their past experiences, preferred tools, and common challenges. This provided baseline insights into user behaviors, pain points, and expectations before they interacted with any search results or landing pages.
Search Behavior & First Impressions – Presenting users with a Google search results page (SERP) for “Resume Templates” to analyze their first impressions and decision-making logic. We asked users which search result they would be most likely to click on and why, uncovering how they evaluate credibility, trust, and relevance in search results.
Exploring Template Selection & User Expectations – Directing users to the My Perfect Resume Templates Page, specifically the resume templates grid, to understand how they navigate, filter, and evaluate templates. Key focus areas included:
Choice Overload vs. Limited Options – Do users prefer more or fewer template choices?
Selection Criteria – What factors influence their template choice (e.g., design, industry relevance, readability)?
Comparison Friction – How easy or difficult is it to compare templates?
Motivations & Barriers to Entry – Evaluating whether users felt ready to enter the resume builder based on the landing page experience. We investigated:
What aspects of the page instilled confidence in moving forward?
What frictions or doubts made them hesitate?
What additional information or reassurance would make them feel more prepared to start building their resume?
Follow-Up & Final Insights – Capturing any lingering questions, confusion, or missing expectations users had about the experience. We also assessed:
Overall clarity and usability of the site.
Whether users would recommend My Perfect Resume to others.
This structured approach allowed us to map user behavior from search intent to engagement, uncovering critical insights into what resonates with users, where friction occurs, and what drives conversion decisions.
Excerpts from the user testing script, showcasing full questions and step-by-step instructions to guide participants through the study.
As the Lead Designer, I played a key role in shaping the research strategy, execution, and synthesis for this unmoderated usability test. While I partnered closely with an SEO Manager and Content Writer to develop the testing script, my primary focus was on ensuring the test effectively captured UX insights and user behavior patterns.
Once the test was conducted, I took ownership of analyzing and synthesizing the findings, transforming raw user responses into actionable insights. Using qualitative coding, I identified recurring themes in user feedback, distilling key takeaways into structured insights for UX, content, and SEO optimizations.
I went a step further by mapping all findings on an Impact vs. Effort chart, highlighting quick wins and high-value opportunities that could be implemented immediately. I ranked insights based on their potential impact and feasibility, ensuring that stakeholders had a clear, prioritized guide for planning the 2025 roadmap. This approach helped translate research findings into tangible next steps, making it easier for teams to act on user needs efficiently.
By leveraging a structured synthesis process and strategic prioritization, I ensured the research not only informed UX decisions but also provided cross-functional value to marketing, content, and SEO teams.
This was Bold’s first unmoderated UX test, bringing both excitement and challenges:
Maintaining Focus on the Test Goal – With so many insights emerging, we risked getting derailed by findings beyond our original scope.
Clarifying Instructions to Prevent Navigation Errors – Despite a meticulously reviewed script, users struggled with instructions, unintentionally navigating away from the intended test page.
Extracting SEO-Specific Insights – Since the test focused on design and content, we had to actively seek SEO takeaways to ensure the findings benefited all stakeholders.
Synthesizing Data Without Introducing Bias – Reviewing usability test recordings is time-intensive, and distributing work across multiple reviewers introduced the risk of subjective interpretation of user feedback.
solutions & outcomes
We successfully overcame these challenges by implementing the following solutions:
Keeping the Team Focused on the Core Goal – I proactively reminded the team that this was just the first of many tests and encouraged us to prioritize answering our key research questions before expanding scope in future studies.
Enhancing Test Instructions for Clarity – After a trial run, we refined the script with explicit guidance, such as:
"Stay on this page, but verbally tell us which resume you would select."
This ensured users remained within the intended test flow, reducing inconsistencies in the data.
Extracting SEO Takeaways from User Responses – While users didn’t explicitly mention SEO, we analyzed their decision-making rationale when selecting a search result. Their reliance on trusted brands like Microsoft and Canva highlighted the importance of brand authority in search rankings.
Using AI to Synthesize Data Efficiently – To mitigate human bias in synthesis, I leveraged ChatGPT to parse transcript data from usertesting.com. This allowed us to quantify recurring themes and surface common pain points more objectively, leading to a more comprehensive and reliable final report.
Final Thoughts
By implementing unmoderated usability testing, we successfully introduced a data-driven approach to Bold’s marketing organization, validating user expectations, content effectiveness, and search behavior insights.
The findings not only improved the Resume Templates Landing Page but also laid the groundwork for future UX research initiatives that would continue to inform SEO and marketing-driven design decisions.
Check out all the findings in the full report
unmoderated test findings
contact
chrystal k. ulanday