Discovering And Creating New Entry Points For Google My Business
My role: End-to-end Product Designer, User Research, User Testing, Documentation
Company: GOOGLE
Product: Google Search, Google Maps, Google My Business
Platform: Web Mobile, Web Desktop, Android, iOS, Mac OS
Year: 2020
BACKGROUND
We were hitting a wall with merchant engagement on Google Business Profile—the resistance line for 28-day active user engagement was tough to break. Despite solid organic growth, merchants weren’t sticking around long enough to fully engage with their profiles, especially across platforms like Google Search, Maps, and mobile. While initiatives like MPlex’s push notifications on iOS Maps had seen some success, we needed a broader, scalable solution to make GBP stickier.
Extensive user research revealed that many merchants struggled to find intuitive ways to access their profiles across Google platforms. In fact, a significant number of users were bookmarking the GBP page just to locate it easily—clearly indicating that current entry points were not effective. The goal was to design seamless, embedded entry points within Google Search and Maps, making it easier for both new and existing merchants to access and manage their profiles, while enhancing the overall user experience across desktop, mobile, and Maps.
OBJECTIVES
-
Increase 28-day active user engagement across all surfaces (Desktop Search, Desktop Maps, Mobile Search, Mobile Maps, GSA, GMM) by breaking the resistance line.
-
Embed intuitive, seamless entry points for Google Business Profile in Google Search and Maps to make profile access easier for merchants.
-
Improve profile discoverability for both new and existing merchants, reducing the reliance on bookmarks for navigation.
-
Enhance the onboarding experience for new merchants by simplifying the process of claiming and setting up business profiles.
-
Drive stickiness by making it easier for merchants to access and manage their profiles across multiple devices and platforms.
-
Balance value and effort by designing solutions that are high-impact but quick to implement, meeting the Q2 handover and Q3 launch deadlines.
-
Ensure consistency in user experience across all platforms, maintaining Google's clean design principles while improving engagement.
-
Collaborate with cross-functional teams (engineering, product, and stakeholders) to align on feasible solutions and hit deadlines.
THE PROBLEM
Merchants are struggling to consistently engage with Google Business Profile across multiple platforms, resulting in a plateau in 28-day active user engagement. Despite organic growth, many merchants find it difficult to access their profiles through Google Search, Maps, and mobile, leading them to rely on workarounds like bookmarking. This lack of intuitive entry points limits their ability to fully utilize the platform, particularly for new merchants trying to claim and set up profiles. The challenge is to design seamless, embedded entry points across Google’s surfaces to make profile access easier, drive higher engagement, and break through the resistance line for stickiness across all devices.
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
As the lead product designer, my responsibilities included:
Lead the Design Process to seamlessly embed entry points across Google Search, Maps, and mobile platforms to make it easier for merchants to access their profiles.
Dive into user research to uncover where merchants are getting stuck and figure out how we can make Google Business Profile more accessible and engaging.
Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams—engineering, product managers, and stakeholders—to make sure we’re all aligned and the solutions we design are technically feasible.
Brainstorm and create prototypes for entry points that are intuitive, easy to find, and work smoothly across desktop, mobile, and Maps.
Prioritize impact by focusing on solutions that pack the biggest punch while still meeting the tight Q2 handover and Q3 launch deadlines.
Run usability tests to see how merchants react to the new entry points and ensure they’re improving engagement and discoverability.
Iterate and refine designs based on real feedback to keep the user experience top-notch without compromising Google’s clean, minimalist vibe.
Oversee the handoff to engineering, ensuring every design element and specification is ready to go by the Q2 deadline for a smooth implementation.
Continuous monitoring and maintenance of product.
CHALLENGES & CONSTRAINTS
-
Tight Deadlines: The project needed to be designed and handed over to engineering by Q2, with a Q3 launch. This meant we had to prioritize solutions that were both impactful and quick to develop.
-
Balancing Design and Stickiness: Making the entry points prominent enough to boost engagement without cluttering the clean Google interface was a major challenge.
-
Consistency Across Platforms: Ensuring a seamless, consistent experience across all surfaces—desktop, mobile, Maps—was key to building trust and driving repeated engagement.
CONSIDERATIONS
Surfaces:
-
Desktop Search (Web)
-
Desktop Maps (Web)
-
Mobile Search (Web)
-
Mobile Maps (Web)
-
GSA (Google Search App)
-
GMM (Google Maps Mobile app)
CURRENT ENTRY POINTS TO ACCESS GOOGLE MY BUSINESS PROFILE
Access the profile by google-searching the name of the company
Access the profile by google-searching "My Business"
Access the profile by searching the company on Google Maps
DISCOVERY & IDEATION
NEW ACCESS POINTS
EDUCATE THE USER ON ENTRY POINTS
TOOLTIP: Educate the user about the phone dial pad's access to Business Profile.
PERSISTENT NOTIFICATION: Mini card notification that gives direct access to their Business Profile, if the user is already logged in.
TEMPORARY NOTIFICATION: this card would have an embedded entry point (try now), but it's also educating for the user.
REPLACE 'IMAGES' WITH 'BUSINESS PROFILE'
COMPLEXITY MATRIX:
I created the Impact vs. Complexity matrix to evaluate which access points to Google My Business would be most suitable for user testing. By mapping out different options, I was able to identify high-impact, low-complexity solutions that could be tested with users first, ensuring that we focused on features that promised the greatest success with minimal effort. This method also helped prioritize resources and time effectively, enabling us to select the most promising options for testing while avoiding those that were either too complex or offered limited value.
CONCEPT TESTING & FEEDBACK
MODERATED CONCEPT TESTING
-
Understand how merchants currently access their business profile
-
Do they want persistent or temporary actionable entry points?
-
Are they currently using the ‘Speed dial’ entry point?
VALUE VS.EFFORT ANALYSIS
Given the tight Q2 deadline, we needed to prioritize high-impact, low-effort solutions:
-
High-value, low-effort: Simple buttons embedded into search results and Maps listings, which could be quickly implemented but would drive a substantial increase in engagement.
-
Higher-effort solutions: These included more personalized features like dashboards, which would require more development resources but offered potential for even higher engagement.
CHALLENGES & CONSTRAINTS
Tight Deadlines: The project needed to be designed and handed over to engineering by Q2, with a Q3 launch. This meant we had to prioritize solutions that were both impactful and quick to develop.
-
Balancing Design and Stickiness: Making the entry points prominent enough to boost engagement without cluttering the clean Google interface was a major challenge.
-
Consistency Across Platforms: Ensuring a seamless, consistent experience across all surfaces—desktop, mobile, Maps—was key to building trust and driving repeated engagement.
RESULTS
The Q3 launch of the new entry points was a huge success:
-
We broke the resistance line with a 35% increase in 28-day active user engagement, surpassing our targets for stickiness across all surfaces.
-
Onboarding of new merchants saw a 25% increase, thanks to the streamlined “Claim Your Business” feature on Maps.
-
Merchants dramatically reduced their reliance on bookmarks, now able to access their profiles through visible, intuitive pathways embedded in Search and Maps.
LEARNINGS:
-
Visibility is key to stickiness: Embedding access points in high-traffic areas like Search and Maps made it much easier for merchants to engage regularly, breaking the resistance line we had been struggling with.
-
Consistency builds trust: Ensuring a consistent experience across platforms kept merchants coming back and helped drive up engagement.
-
Prioritize simplicity: Simple, easy-to-find entry points can have a huge impact on engagement without over-complicating the user interface.
-
Collaboration drives results: Working closely with engineering and product teams allowed us to hit our tight deadlines and deliver a solution that was both impactful and scalable.