My Role
Lead designer responsible for research, conceptualization, and design
The Team
Head of Global Digital Marketing
Global Art Director
Development team
Timeline
Quick turn
48 hours
Introduction
In 2023 woom made an effort to improve site usability after merging the US and European sites into one global site with localization in 2022. This involved optimizing existing components for mobile, addressing inventory transparency, and implementing tools to facilitate informed purchasing ahead of the busiest shopping season.
Context
Many customers shopping for kids’ bikes include parents, grandparents, and other guardians who might not have a wealth of technical knowledge of bikes. Viewing too many products with similar appearances and little context can make decision making difficult and increase drop off rates.
Users are not able to view all products relevant to their child's size within a single screen, increasing cognitive load.
The Results
While this function has not yet been implemented, customer feedback confirms that users are seeking ways to refine results and make purchasing decisions more efficiently, expressing excitement on social channels about UX updates like adding color variant availability to the product grid.
To validate success we need to conduct more research, such as a system usability survey or desirability study that determines how influential consumers rate filters and sorting in their purchasing decisions. We could also cluster themes to understand what factors helped customers most in making their purchasing decisions. Time on task would tell us how quickly users were able to locate relevant products.
If I were to iterate on this project, it would be interesting to A/B test our product grid and our mobile-optimized slider component. We could also experiment with adding lifestyle images on hover to help users visually differentiate products and provide additional context of the rider's age and size that correlates with the product.
Skip the small talk
Research
Foundational research informed us of industry standards and later helped to define our value proposition.
I conducted a competitive audit of 5 outdoor retailers with a varying levels of user control.
Our Users
By better understanding our users, we can start to understand how they might benefit from filters.
A majority of our customers include parents or guardians and grandparents with disposable income.
Kids are edge case users, shopping for gifts they want from their parents or guardians.
User Traits
01. Busy
Parents are busy balancing care-taking needs while managing their own personal lives and do not have a wealth of time to spend online shopping.
02. Caring
Most of woom’s least technically affluent consumers fall into the “caring parent” segment and are looking to provide the best experiences for their children in terms of health and development.
03. Informed
These customers want to make informed decisions and typically are introduced to the brand through word of mouth or their own research. Some have more product knowledge than others, while younger customers might want to see the latest colors and models.
Next, we broke down the problem to better understand how we can build reviews that benefit our users.
The Problem
Busy parents do not have an abundance of time to make purchasing decisions and need to easily narrow products to make informed big-ticket purchases.
How might we efficiently inform and help users determine which products best fit their needs?
The Goals
01. Easy to Use
It should be accessible to all, use familiar navigation methods to complete, and minimize user’s cognitive load.
02. Flexible
The gifting functionality should offer users freedom to choose how they want the product to work.
03. Reliable
Context should validate success or failure of an action and inform customers about the product results. It should help users make decisions quickly and navigate errors successfully.
Our value proposition was determined by referring to our initial research while keeping our users needs in mind.
Must Have
Could Have
Should Have
Won't Have
The Solution
The final solution was to place filters within a sticky menu that was informative and can be easily controlled.
Efficient
Batch Filtering & Multiple Selection
To avoid slow loading speeds and lags created by fetching data, batch filtering allows users to think through their selections, scan all options, and even understand the product offering better.
Multi select allows users to quickly select multiple filters in a single category, leading to more accurate results without having to repeat a task.
Efficient
Applying Hick's Law
Since woom’s product assortment is limited in comparision to less specialized retailers, we wanted to avoid including too many filters that might increase the likelyhood of searches yielding no results.
Users are presented with four categories in drawers on mobile and vertical lists within a menu on larger devices.
By limiting categories, information is organized into chunks users can effectively recall and utilize, while fitting easily within a single screen on mobile.
Easy to Use
Flexible Processes
We know that our users often include parents and grandparents who have a wide range of technical affluence and abilities to accommodate.
By matching industry standards, users are more likely to achieve their goals without increasing their efforts.
Filters can be adjusted and cleared using multiple methods, including toggling checkboxes and radio buttons, batch clearing, and by selecting chips when the menu is collapsed.
Easy to Use
Consistent Systems
The planned launch of the filter function was originally a part of a larger update in which navagtion was updated to a mega menu.
By matching the appearance and functionality of other menus on the site, users can associate similar functionality.
The larger menu allows users to view all filters within one screen, while also keeping numerous controls visibile when the menu is collapsed.
User Informed
System Visibility
Once the menu is collapsed, users are able to clearly confirm the accuracy of their selections with visible filter chips. Filter and results counts provide additional contextual information.
By keeping users informed of these quantities, they can quickly determine if the search needs to be broadened or refined to fit their needs.
