The Modern G2 Review Form: How Our Design Changes Benefit You

Buckle up, Speed Racer. The software world moves so fast that it’ll make your head spin.

Constant change comes with the territory when you’re accustomed to this rapid pace. But change can be scary. It forces you to challenge your thinking and venture into uncertainty. Change is also a fundamental ingredient for consistent growth and presents tremendous opportunities.

Because so much of what we do at G2 is driven by maintaining a thriving marketplace for software buyers and vendors, reviews are crucial to our success. When we improve the user review experience, we also drive better results for software vendors.

The G2 Review Form is how real people submit reviews, and it just got an awesome new facelift. In this article, we’ll explore the changes to this experience and why they’ll lead to bigger wins for you on G2.

User experience is a huge deal

If you can remember what it was like browsing the web in the early 2000s, it’s interesting to think about what we tolerated back then. From web pages loading at a snail’s pace to frustrating design choices, we were much more forgiving because it was all so new.

Today is a much different story because of how integral technology has become in daily living. Users now expect much more, and their experiences heavily influence how likely they are to keep using a product.

User experience (UX) design is a practice in which an organization attempts to assess how users and customers interact with a product or service. These organizations rely on research and testing methods to find opportunities that aim to optimize experiences for as many customers as possible. 

Simply put: if you don’t give your customers an experience they’ll love, they’ll go elsewhere.

One of the reasons why G2 is the world’s largest B2B software marketplace is that we never settle for the status quo. We’re constantly challenging ourselves to make G2 better to connect buyers with software vendors.

Since all users submit their reviews through the G2 Review Form, we know this is a major experience worth getting right.

Striking a delicate balance for the best outcomes

Growth and embracing change go hand in hand. And this certainly isn’t the first time the review form has received updates.

Part of G2’s success comes from our commitment to collecting authentic, unbiased reviews from real people. That means deeply understanding what buyers need to know when researching and choosing software that best fits their needs.

The process of software buying is far from straightforward. Not to mention that our research suggests that the software sales cycle will continue to become more complex. Buyers need as much information available to aid them in their decision-making.

Unlike leaving a review on a site like Yelp or Google, reviews on G2 are intentionally comprehensive by comparison. Customers have a lot to say about the products and services they use, and there’s a ton of nuance we aim to capture when someone submits a review.

Say hello to the new G2 Review Form

Our team needed to figure out how to strike a delicate balance between creating a smoother, faster experience without compromising on our obligation to encourage users to submit in-depth reviews. The new G2 Review Form has numerous meaningful and noticeable updates, and we’re thrilled to share them with you.

Key design changes to know about

After careful consideration and loads of experimentation, the new review form is here and ready for the world to see. Check out the following noteworthy changes that matter most.

• New progress bar: To encourage more submissions, the new progress bar provides a visual cue for users on their overall progress before submitting. This will go a long way in setting expectations for time to completion and reducing total abandoned reviews.
• Improved question flow: Re-ordering questions creates a more logical flow that makes the intent of the review form more obvious to the user. It’s also critical to note that the number of clicks on the “Next” button drops from over 20 to just 4.
• Streamlined question groupings: The form now groups questions into five separate tabs, each of which defines what the questions will focus on for a given tab. Doing so prevents the user from having to switch gears mentally. This was a much-needed change because it is far easier to answer questions that follow a similar contextual theme.
• Two-column layout: A new two-column format will prevent “gotchas” and surprise users with more questions based on how they answer dependent questions. This overall improvement in user experience will make questions feel more apparent straight away.

What’s staying the same

We’ve talked about all the exciting changes coming to the new review form, but plenty will remain intact.

• Review moderation flow: We’re confident that these changes will increase completion rates, which means many more reviews must be vetted and can only be approved under strict guidelines. All reviews will continue to follow our current moderation flow.
• Historical data: Any reviews and data previously collected on the old form will be retained and continue to be used.
• How reviews display on G2.com: The look and feel may differ for the review form, but reviews will still display as they do on G2 Profiles.

Stepping on the gas to more reviews

The newly designed G2 Review Form is an all-around win-win. Optimizing this experience will delight more users than ever, and vendors on G2 will benefit greatly from better completion rates. 

Experience the all new G2 Review Form for yourself. Submit a review today to see these changes in action.