Savannah Candle Company’s Vision
Current State
Plenty of website visitors
Low conversion rate
Future State Vision
A new eCommerce website showcasing the candles while maintaining a “small shop” brand image appeal
Have multiple ways of locating specific products
Have an efficient way of purchasing one or more products
Steer customers towards popular products
Allow customers to contact the business
User Research
User Research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through interviews, task analysis, observation techniques, card sorting and other feedback methodologies. Research was conducted through a series of user interviews specifically targeted with individuals who regularly purchase candles online, on a monthly basis. I wanted to find out their goals and pain points. During the user interviews, I conducted in-depth research into what their motivations were for shopping cart abandonment. While my initial hypothesis was that people just changed their mind, abandoned their cart, I pleasantly discovered through the interviews, to learn that there are more focused reasons for cart abandonment – namely the checkout process.
Personas
Informed by the kaleidoscope of interviews, I distilled the essences of real users. With personas, I became empathetic with targeted users, focusing on their world so I could reflect the person’s problem(s) to solve and creating a new user experience that solves their problem(s).
Key Problem to solve:
Shopping Cart Abandonment
From User Research:
Unexpected shipping costs, fees, taxes at checkout
Do not like to pay shipping
Long and Complicated Check Out Process. Confused by having to enter every line of the form
Payment Security Concerns – Card Theft
Identity Theft Concerns
Research Synthesis
Problem Statement
Chloe and Dr. Oakmont need a way to have an efficient check out process so she/he can buy candles
Solution Statement
Create a simple, easy to understand check out process which informs the user of each checkout “stage gate”
Competitive Analysis
Seeking to understand and benchmark the competitors who sell candles online, I focused on examining the problematic experiences the users interviews desired to solve. Additionally, as I reviewed these experiences, I included the rank of importance to persona, with 5 being the highest opportunities to solve.
Sketching
Next, I started free-hand sketching on the experience I desired to create for the refreshed website.
Information Architecture
Seeking to understand how users would organize my inventory content in a way that makes sense to them, I utilized Optimal Workshop to conduct 10 open card sorts and 10 closed card sorts. Informed by the analyses’ including a dendogram analysis, I created a high level and very detailed categorization of the inventory.
Ideal Persona User Flow
Before I started grayscale wireframing, I wanted to lay out the “happy path” of the ideal persona user flow
Grayscale Wireframing
After several iterations of free-hand sketching and informed by the quantitative and qualitative analyses’ that were conducted, I was ready to start grayscale wireframing for the web, using Sketch.
User Testing
Naturally, I wanted to test out the Grayscale Wireframes with users to receive feedback on the ideal state. I conducted two rounds of testing. Between the first and second round, I was ble to identify the following deficiencies and solve them, as detailed below:
Deficiency Identified: Multiple Ways of Locating Productsa. Solution: Added Floating Candles as a new way to find products, in addition to search bar, scrolling down on the first page.
Deficiency identified: Ability to write Reviews
Solution: Added the ability to write a product review Demonstration The final prototype, as illustrated in Invision, was designed specifically to create a more intuitive, simple, and informed check out process.