YELP
Truly Trustworthy Reviews
Company
Role
Team
Product Designer
Researcher
UX Researchers
Product Designers
About Yelp
Yelp is a website and app which utilizes and publishes crowd-sourced reviews for various businesses ranging from restaurants to plumbers. With hundreds of millions of reviews and tens of millions of users, Yelp relies on sheer volume to provide users with as unbiased ratings of businesses as possible. Yelp is going into its second decade in operation with missions to connect people with “great local businesses” and maintain their community’s trust.
This project was completed as part of a class assignment at Carnegie Mellon university. Yelp was not involved with the project nor has access to the designs from this project.
The Challenge
Users are not sure if they trust Yelp
INSIGHT 2
Two-thirds of our participants said they were only “somewhat likely” to trust a review on a platform like Yelp or Tripadvisor.
Friends > Strangers
INSIGHT 3
When Yelp first opened its doors, it was truly one of a kind and innovative in the field. They were and are industry-leading in the business, yet times have shifted and many other platforms have emerged as competitors to Yelp. Direct competitors like Google, Apple Maps, and Tripadvisor are met with indirect competitors such as TikTok, where content creators like @ChrisBurkard make recommendations to millions of viewers. Because of this saturation in the recommendations market, users struggle to identify trustworthy recommendations.
INSIGHT 1
Users overwhelmingly shared that they had the most trust in recommendations from people they knew, like friends or family, over strangers.
Even recommendations from a friend of a friend were more likely to be trusted than from a stranger on the internet.
Sponsored content is off-putting
Participants were put off by paid or sponsored reviews – they felt that anything that was motivated by money could be biased.
These insights then beg the question – what exactly are the components that make up a trustworthy recommendation?
A recommendation is ideally from someone the user knows personally, or even a 2nd-degree connection like a friend of a friend, though:
The degree to which the user is related to the individual should be indicated
A recommendation ideally contains some form of visual
A recommendation should not be motivated by money
Research
Usability Tests
We began our generative research process by conducting think-aloud usability tests where participants walked us through their thought processes on planning a trip. We witnessed their thought processes and behaviors as they looked up lodging, activities, and restaurants for their trip. A major finding from this round of testing indicated that users often struggle to identify which recommendations are trustworthy and genuine.
“I’ll try to ask for [recommendations] from friends when I can. If it’s somewhere no one’s been, I will rely on online sources like Yelp, but honestly, it makes me nervous and I don’t always know if I’ll end up liking the place.”
— Participant
“It’s hard because everything looks good online. It’s easy now to pay people to leave a good review, and it’s just a stranger on the internet, so it’s not hard to fake it. Yeah, I guess I don’t always trust reviews online.”
— Participant
Card Sorting
Once we realized that trustworthiness was the key component to investigate, we decided to conduct a card-sorting activity that asked users to rank which recommendations they found most trustworthy. Users were shown screenshots of emails from friends, advertisements on Instagram, reviews on Yelp, and more to rank.
Survey
Additionally, we distributed a survey that mostly utilized a 5-point Likert scale. This helped us to identify key attitudes and habits users hold such as where they tend to do their research as well as how much trust they have in specific recommendation sources.
Findings
Paid or sponsored reviews breed distrust
FINDING 2
"If something looks like it is a commercial or a sponsored post then I don't trust that the [promoter] has genuine intentions" — Participant
"It matters to me whether or not a recommendation is motivated by money -- it makes me dislike that recommendation." — Participant
Users generally trust reviews from websites such as Yelp, though none indicated they felt complete trust
FINDING 3
FINDING 1
Users overwhelmingly trust friends and family for reviews, while demonstrating slight distrust in reviews from strangers on the internet
Final Design
A brand new social media component to Yelp consisting of a feed and updated search, business, and profile pages.
The Feed
The feed, which will live on the home page of the app and website, will display where users’ connections have checked in, reviewed, or asked for recommendations.
Having a feed encourages users to check Yelp regularly to see what their connections have been up to, as well as discover new businesses with ease.
Users are able to distinguish reviews or check-ins that pop up on their page as being from their connections (1st-degree connection) or from being friends of their connections (2nd-degree). Users have the option to allow for 3rd-degree connections to show up on their feed as well, which will be especially beneficial for those who are seeking to cast a wider net.
The algorithm will account for the degree of connection, as our research shows that those who are directly related to the user are the most trustworthy. This will look like users seeing their closest connections’ content first, accounting for how much time has passed since the content was posted, followed by less close connections’ content.
Search and Business Pages
The search page is altered to allow for additional filtering – allowing the user to search for businesses that have been checked into, recommended, or reviewed by their connections. This allows users searching for businesses to see which ones are personally recommended by their connections.
On the business page itself, users will be able to see activity from their connections. This is a crucial feature that aids users in determining the trustworthiness of reviews.
Profile Page
Yelp’s existing profile page is updated – displaying users’ recent activity and public collections to facilitate user connections. Additionally, messaging between users becomes a central part of the experience, whereas in the past it was primarily occurring between users and businesses.
Direct messaging between users is crucial to allowing for deeper conversations about recommendations. Users might reach out to connect about a recent Check-In, or ask for more details that would otherwise not be included in a public review. This allows for a more intimate connection between users and further facilitates the sense of trust in recommendations.
Outcomes
DESIRED OUTCOME 1
The revamped Yelp app promotes a sense of connection and trust among users.
Since users have the highest trust in recommendations from close friends, being able to see close friends’ activity on businesses promotes a sense of faith in the Yelp app.
DESIRED OUTCOME 2
Users are encouraged to utilize Yelp at a higher rate.
Users are encouraged to engage with each other much more as their connections request recommendations, share about recent check-ins, and leave reviews. The ability to comment and like others’ activity allows users to initiate further engagement.