Support & Downloads

Summary

After launch, calls requesting manuals, brochures, and drivers dropped significantly, while online downloads increased.

The merchandising team had raised concerns about high call volumes despite moving materials online to support environmental goals. Analytics and user testing revealed the search experience was difficult.

I conducted a heuristic review to identify usability issues, shared findings with stakeholders, and collaborated to set goals and success metrics. Through iterative wireframes and prototypes, we redesigned the experience.

We asked, "How can we help users locate brochures and manuals?"

Discovery

Ricoh-USA had an existing search and download tool for product materials. While some suggested promoting it, remote testing showed users struggled to use it effectively—“trouble locating” meant they couldn’t find useful results despite finding the feature.

The question then became "How do we improve the document and driver search experience?"

And that is how this...

became this.

Search field redesign



The original search bar at the top of the feature was revisited after testing revealed the following issues.

The original search bar felt intimidating for several reasons.

The original search bar felt intimidating for several reasons:

• Fields were unnecessarily long, while product names and model numbers are short; users assumed something other than their model number belonged in the search.
• The placeholder text mentioned only drivers, discouraging users seeking brochures or manuals.
• Lengthy instructions were often ignored.
  

The redesign introduced a shorter input field, clearer placeholder text, and a larger search icon to improve usability.

Instructional text redesign

The updated instructions are shorter, and supported by other page elements to clarify available downloads. The driver installation link was relocated for clarity.

Dropdown filter redesign

Wireframes We addressed these issues with new wireframes and prototypes:

• Dropdowns appeared progressively, only showing subcategories when relevant, reducing confusion and visual clutter.
• The Reset button was eliminated—users could change any dropdown without restarting the process.
• The Go button was removed—results appeared automatically after selecting a model.
• The "Select Download" dropdown was replaced with a single results list showing all available assets for the product.

Below are examples from the wireframes.

View the Desktop Prototype  and  Mobile Prototype

Redesigned Support & Download feature



The new smaller search field, clear messaging, and progressive filtered search created a more elegant, usable, and compact feature—about half the size of the original—which also worked on mobile, unlike its predecessor.

Results messaging issues

In the original design, results were easy to miss—small text appeared far from the dropdowns and was easily overlooked. The links were labeled with confusing numbers unrelated to model names.

Wireframes were created to make search results clear and visible, whether they returned results or not. New labels made it very clear whether each item was a brochure, manual, or driver, and which model it applied to.