eCommerce Website Redesign Project
Cookie Good
User Experience Designer
February 2020
Process Involved:
User Research/ Testing, Competitive Analysis, User Flows, Persona/ Problem Statement Creation, Sketching, Wireframing/ Prototyping, Visual Design
When collaborating with Cookie Good, I redesigned their eCommerce platform to reorganize information architecture, enhance navigation, and simplify the ordering experience.
Cookie Good‘s website was filled with fun, bright imagery that allowed customers nationwide to browse their delicious cookies. However, their ordering process left many feeling confused and frustrated, which led to shopping carts being abandoned and potential revenue being lost.
The opportunity was to design a system that streamlined their ordering process, while still maintaining and highlighting a strong brand identity, ultimately ensuring their digital presence conveyed the same high quality as their products.
Research
To better empathize with users, I started with a deep dive into the existing Cookie Good website - checking for, and documenting any errors in usability or accessibility heuristics.
Data from competitive analyses showed where competition and market leaders excelled, and where there were opportunities for Cookie Good to improve or fill a need.
I tasked three users with a checkout flow and monitored their interactions and experiences on the website - the four quotes above represent their most common frustrations.
Define
Feeback from user testing/ interviewing was visualized in artifacts like feature prioritizations and user flows. Based on research data, I created a persona who represented Cookie Good’s target users/market - this came in the form of Courtney Adams.
To help stakeholders better empathize with their target users and visualize where their experiences suffered the most, a persona journey map was developed.
Ideate
I began designing the new website by sketching and iterating ideas in a journal, based on my synthesized data. Once I felt the designs were ready, I created a low-fidelity, paper prototype and tested/ interviewed three users.
With feedback gained from the first round of testing, my designs were iterated into the medium fidelity prototype pictured above - the medium fidelity wireframes were tested on another three users, followed by a debrief interview.
Below are the high-fidelity mockups with features and designs based on the feedback and data from all six rounds of user testing.
Updating the look and feel of the site
The goal was to make the entire shopping experience feel playful, yet seamless and efficient. Utilizing Cookie Good’s branding, the website was redesigned with a clean, modern look and features suggested by users during testing, were implemented. These features included clearer call-to-action buttons and quantity/ restock indicators.
Tone up the PDP
The product description page was redesigned as research showed, the existing ordering process led to high amounts of user drop-off and cart abandonment. A section for recommended items was included, as the current website lacked this feature when compared to other companies in the market-space. Once items were added to cart, a dropdown menu immediately appeared and funneled users to the checkout process.
Checkout with ease
Checkout was designed as a single, easy to understand module taking users through the checkout flow. Buttons to save information or use the same address for shipping and billing, were included to make the ordering process easy for returning users.
This project offered a tremendous opportunity to learn and work as a solo UX Designer/ Researcher.
UX Research and Design Tools
Learning and practicing foundational research skills and industry-standard programs, allowed me to better understand the job of UX Designers, from a high-level perspective. As User Experience shares similarities in research design as Psychology, it was also an opportunity for me to integrate my educational background, with newly learned technical skills.
Empathetic Reasoning
User Experience Design is user-centered. The numerous interviews, task analyses, and usability tests performed throughout this project all served as reminders to empathize with users and refrain from making designs subjective.
Time Management
As this project was completed in two, two-week sprints (research and design phases), I time-boxed activities in order to enhance my time management skills. This allowed me to accurately go through the UX Double Diamond and create accompanying deliverables, in two-week intervals, ultimately preparing me for an Agile work environment.