Overview
The pandemic has driven a recession impact on the retail industry. Essic Sport Shop is a local family business that has been in the field since 1947. On the current website, phone calls are the only way to contact and purchase from the store. The goal is to expand e-commerce options while preserving the “ Essic Spirit ” which is to put a smile on every customer.
The Problem
Essic Sport Shop has been providing great deals and service to the local community for over 70 years, however, covid-19 has been depressing its sales lately.
The Business Goal
The redesign aims to increase customer acquisition. By providing a trustworthy and intuitive digital platform for the whole online shopping journey to convert deal hunters into paying customers.
Tools
Sketch . Invision . Miro . Mural . Zoom .
Project Scale
2 Weeks Remote Individual Project
My Role
Project Manager . UX Researcher . UX/UI Designer
THE PROCESS
DISCOVER
Only 2.58% Conversion Rate of Online Shopper
E-commerce has populated social media in recent years. It is obviously booming. But will it continue to grow at its current rate? Pertaining to Statistia, only 2.58 percent of global e-commerce site visits were converted into purchases in the second quarter of 2019. This means, out of 34 online visitors, only 1 brought something. There are still 97.42% potential sales under the water, in other words, “ the sky is unlimited.”
What Went Wrong During the Buying Journey?
To explore buyers’ online shopping experiences. I interviewed 5 people via zoom and phone call, trying to figure out what went wrong during their online shopping journeys. I then broke down the entire buying journey into four phases in terms of researching products, viewing product details, reviewing carts, and applying for payment. From the responses I received, I discovered that the product research phase and product detail phase have the highest cart abandonment rate, especially for first-time site visitors. During these two stages, shoppers would hop onto other websites to see if there are better deals, as well as research reviews to confirm if the site is trustworthy.
The research also indicates the rate of cart abandonment reduces as the journey progresses. Since it is an individual project with a timeline of less than two weeks, I decided to focus my design on product research and product Detail.
DEFINE
Encourage Purchase Incentive
Reinforcing back to the business goal, which is to increment customer acquisition, I interviewed 4 people via zoom. I asked questions regarding what are their frustrations while online shopping and what boost up their incentives to proceed with orders as first-time site visitors. After affinity mapped their responses, there are a couple of commonalities.
Affinity Mapping
• 100% participants thought credibility is the most crucial aspect. • 75% participants felt the urge to purchase when items are low in stock. • 75% participants were prompted to shop when they feel they are getting good deals. • 50% participants enjoyed their online shopping experience when interfaces are intuitive.
Meet Indecisive shopper Mia
“Mia needs a trustworthy and intuitive digital platform for her online shopping journey, so she feels more confident about the money she spends and deals she gets.”
Formulate Navigation
I utilized the platform Mural to conduct hybrid card sorting tasks remotely in order to figure out concise navigation. I prepared a variety of products for participants to categorize. They can either use existing labels or create a new category.
Hybrid card sorting
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After all participants completed their tasks, I consolidated all the categories in excel sheet, converting data into percentage metric.
Pertaining to my research metric, I decided to keep sport as part of the global navigating section.
Convert Indecisive Shoppers Into Paying Customers
In order to further develop sales strategies toward the purchasing funnel. I conducted the competitive and comparative analysis, focusing on feature design. Direct competitors are other reselling platforms. Indirect competitors are direct selling platforms.
Maximize reference prices
Display Stock Availabilities
Optimize reviews
Minimize tab openings
DESIGN
Focal Point Principle & Serial Positioning Effect
The design integrates user experience principles of focal point guidelines and serial positioning effect from the beginning. The layout emphasizes compositions that hold the viewer’s attention and serve as guidance. Also, promoted items are listed at the beginning and the end to capture shoppers' perception as items listed in the middle are more difficult to elicit recalls.
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Site Map
Provoke Awareness, Interests, Desires, and Actions
After creating hi-fi wireframes based on design principles, I focused on adding components that could potentially provoke purchasing action. By studying key takeaways from discovery and defining phases.
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Navigation Design
Delivery
Usability Testing
Purpose: Purposes behind the usability testing are to confirm if the navigation flow runs seamlessly as planned, as well as to ensure if the layout composition functions logistically as designed. This testing will also reveal any hidden concerns as first-time website visitors. All the data will assist in iteration development, improving the overall online shopping experience.
Task: You have been working from home for almost six months. Recently, you are experiencing physical and mental fatigue due to a lack of social connections. You decide to start practicing yoga because your friend told you is an excellent natural energy booster. Then you realize you need a pair of yoga pants.
Show me how you would add a pair of grey color and medium size Nike tight to your cart.
Completed? : 3/3 user complete both tasks. Time : user1 - 30s , user2 - 20s , user3 - 18s Number of errors: user1 - 2 errors , user2 - 1 errors, user3 - 3 errors
Observation: - 2/3 user clicked on “explore” button - 1/3 users scrolled down the home page before clicked on any button. - 1/3 user tried to use search bar to find the item. - 1/3 user clicked on the product first then picked the color.
Design System
Next Steps: Refine Design
Usability testing reveals that although all participants were able to complete the task, the majority of them choose to click on the focal button on the home page instead of the global navigation bar as their starting point as first-time site visitors. This observation shows that attention is a limited resource, and emphasized area that allows visitors to tune out other details, also this research concedes the potentials of the linked page. Most participants were not aware of customer reviews and the history of the store on the homepage as they did not scroll down. The acknowledgment of these two contents is crucial because they form trust between first-time online shoppers and the e-commerce platform. For the iteration, I will include customer review and store history on the page which are linked to the focal button on the home page.
Participants mentioned that they would like more guidelines, as they did not know that they were allowed to view multiple items in different colors on the product listing page. Also, they are wondering if there is a way to add multiple items to express checkout. Hence, I will explore and refine user flows as well as a feature design.
Current Design: “Explore” -> Product List
Current Product List
Iteration: “Explore” -> Company history & client review
Iteration: Adding tag to featured products
Iteration: Pop-up window to provide guideline
Challenge
The biggest challenge for the solo project is to build a solid research foundation to support information architecture with a timeline of less than two weeks in a remote working environment. It was my first time conducting card sorting tasks. I utilized mural as my card sorting task platform then later consolidated all data I collected manually on an excel sheet. Results I obtained led me back to the core concept of “ I am not my user “. It reminds me of the importance of making decisions based on actual data, not assumptions.
I Have learned…
It is crucial to know where I am in terms of the design process. By understanding which phase I am at helps me ask the right questions for my research. There is no point testing the corner radius of a button if I am still figuring out where it should be placed in the wireframe.
I also realized although UX design is a creative field it is essential to follow some foundational design principles and align design practice with them. These rules build the soul of the project, making the design process more organized, concise, and candid.