Overview

Duration: 2 week sprint

Team: Solo

Tools: Figma, Google Suites, Miro

Methods: Interviews | Affinity mapping | Persona development | User journey | Site mapping |  Competitive/comparative analysis | Heuristic evaluation | Design studio | Lo-fi sketching | Mid-fi wireframing | Prototyping | Hi-fi prototyping | User testing

Index: Introduction | Research | Design | User Testing | Iteration | Reflection and Next Steps

Introduction

What is Awkward Auntie?

Awkward Auntie is an online boutique store where you can find small home decor items from concrete planters, to gem studded containers and propagators.

With the increasingly competitive e-commerce space, it is important for the site to be easy to navigate, and include all the features that users are looking for when shopping online. Using research and user testing, I remade Awkward Auntie into a site that puts users first so that they can shop before they drop.

Research

The Current Site

There are many wonderful things that the current site does well that I was not looking to change, as well as things that the site could have improved on. I found that the site included product images that were well done and contributed to the soothing aesthetic that was consistent throughout.

However, some areas of growth included a cluttered top right hand side where the product categories were difficult to see. Something else that was an area for growth was the vast amount of spacing as we scroll down the home page. Minimizing some of this spacing to a more appropriate amount would allow for the user to feel less burdened with an inefficient use of screen space. Something else that did not feel quite intuitive was the way the products were organized into categories.

Glows

• Professional product images

Grows

• Cluttered upper right hand corner

• Inconsistent spacing

• Product organization

Heuristic Evaluation

I decided to get a deeper dive into how I could improve the current site by conducting a heuristic evaluation. I found that there were mainly two areas that sorely needed improvement: User Control and Consistency.

After conducting the heuristic evaluation, I found that one of the greatest issues with the site was the way the categories and products were organized. My next step was to organize a card sort with users to see what categories made the most sense to them and would therefore be more intuitive when navigating the site.

Card Sorting

I recruited 11 people to participate in a short study where they were required to sort product names into categories that they would then name themselves. I was able to gather the information in a way that showed me what products were most frequently grouped together, and what people believed those groups should be named.

From the card sorting results, I learned two main pieces of information:

• Participants tended to group by function

• 57% of participants created 6-7 unique categories

After analyzing the ways that participants grouped the products available, I noticed that most grouped items based on their function rather than some of their aesthetic elements. An example of naming for function rather than aesthetic elements is that Candles and Incense were often grouped together, because they both served the function of providing fragrance, whereas in the original site, Incense would only included under “trays and more.” I also saw that participants grouped items into 6-7 categories, so I made sure to use that number to guide me into creating enough categories to be descriptive, but not enough to be overwhelming. Therefore, I came to the revised categories below.

Comparative/Competitive Analysis

In order to pinpoint functions that our users would expect from e-commerce sites such as ours, I compared Awkward Auntie with some of its competitors and found a gap to be filled: the ability to choose a particular color of the same item on one page.

On our current site, different colors of the same product are all present on the browsing page, but not accessible through the product page. There is no way for a user to browse through different colors of the same item they are interested in, in an efficient and organized way. Instead, they would have to scroll through the category page that is not organized by product, and spend time searching among their screen for what colors are available.

I also found that all other sites had a keyword search as an option for users to use to locate their desired items. However, I actively chose not to include this feature simply because our product selection is not great enough to warrant this type of search feature, as opposed to the product selections of the other compared sites.

User Interviews

Having done some research on the existing sites and e-commerce sites like it, I wanted to get to know our users on a more personal level to truly gain an understanding of their thought processes before, during, and after shopping for decorative items. I conducted three user interviews with aficionados of home decor who were familiar with shopping for the items such as the ones we provide.

There were three repetitive statements made that appeared in all three interviews that can be illustrated by these three quotes:

Users commonly expressed a lack of intention when shopping for decor items. Rather, they were looking to browse and eventually find something that piqued their interest.

As could also be deduced by the card sort, user interviews further stressed the importance of seeking products based on their functionality rather than their style. This user emphasizes that two pots are in distinct categories not because of their size, color, or shape, but because one functions as a decorative vase, and one functions as a plant pot due to the drainage holes at the bottom. This is especially important to note because the drainage holes are a feature that are not easily seen from product photos on the online store.

This quote from another interviewee mentions the importance of function as well, particularly of pieces that are able to function in a variety of ways.

The Persona

These user interviews led me to create our persona, Mary.

In order to make Mary an effective persona, I wanted to make sure that she embodied a few of the traits that our users had in common:

• Enjoys potted plants

• Loves making her space her own.

• Enjoys window shopping

• Has a passion for interior design

While Mary loves a space that reflects her style, function still plays an important part in her decision to buy decorative pieces and accessories for her many house plants. She wants to be able to find the pieces she wants in the colors that fit her Santa Fe apartment best, so a navigable site is key for her!

The Problem

Mary doesn’t always have the time in her busy city schedule to shop for home decor items in person, so she needs a website where she can browse for and purchase decorative pieces by their function without having to leave her home. But online shopping has its limitations! Without seeing a pot in person and inspecting for drainage holes, how will she know if it is suitable for plant life? How can she avoid the frustrations of searching for the pieces she wants in the colors that fit her stylish apartment? How can she shop for a gift for her girlfriend’s birthday without having to click on multiple categories to browse, until she’s forgotten what categories she’s already seen and which ones she’s missed?

Mary needs a website where she can browse for and purchase decorative pieces by their function because she wants to find items that suit her functional and aesthetic needs without having to leave her home.

User Testing

Before reaching the above design, I recruited 15 user testers to complete 4 tasks on the original prototype. I learned not to recruit ex-students for this study, but unfortunately learned too late when I saw that one of our users clicked all over our site at all the buttons for a single task before giving up. However, the other users who are presumably older than 9 years old were able to reach success with our tasks.

Here is what I learned:

• Out of 15 testers, there was an average direct success rate of 86% for all four tasks, meaning that 86% of testers were able to complete the tasks assigned via the expected routes.

• The task that saw the least success was the one asking “Where would you go to look at Planters?” 2 testers completed the mission via unexpected paths, whereas 1 tester left the test. When viewing what unexpected pathway they took, it appeared that rather than going straight to the “Shop” on the navigation bar, both participants first accessed the home screen from the starting screen, which was left on the About Me page from a previous task, before then accessing the Shop function on the same navigation bar. To fully understand this issue, in the future I will be starting all tasks, unless they are a part of one larger task, from the home screen rather than from another page.

• When looking at the text feedback, four out of the nine responders mentioned that the secondary text was hard to read. In order to remedy this issue, I have changed the text to one that is more legible.

Reflection

Next Steps

Must Do:

• Conduct a second round of user testing, being mindful of where the starting page would be at the beginning of each task, and use data to improve the app

Should Do:

• Further prototype the categories to see if they are intuitive

Could Do:

• Prototype the coupon code feature

• Prototype the favorites feature

I enjoyed creating a high fidelity website and will continue to learn more about what makes an e-commerce site easy to use and pleasing to look at.