How can our portal connect with consumers in a highly competitive market?

The Brief

What is the future of web portals? What role do web portals play in peoples’ lives? How can we make our portal more relevant? These were some of the questions Orange wanted to understand the answers to. To guide the design directions for its portal, looking 2-5 years into the future, Orange approached PDD to better understand consumer behaviours and attitudes surrounding content-management and web portals. The goal was to understand where the Orange portal could credibly sit in people’s lives.

What we did

We wanted to understand behaviours, attitudes and mental models around internet use in and out of the home. Our team conducted in-context ethnographic interviews with a number of customer types. With the permission of the interviewees, web tracking software was installed onto their computers to understand web surfing habits. At a time when tabbed browsing was just starting, the research indicated that people rarely have a ‘home page’ but instead a ‘home range’ of websites that they regularly visit.

Results

We provided a framework for understanding consumer needs and behaviour as well as recommendations on the credible space that Orange could own and differentiate itself in a crowded market.