This is an e-commerce platform that sells frozen premium snacks and the client had already worked with local supermarkets but now was focusing their efforts on building a strong e-commerce presence.
This client was aiming to improve conversion on their e-commerce platform by improving the overall user experience. They have received many complaints regarding the purchase and subscription flow. Until December 2020 the website flow, journeys, and overall look and feel were built on the owner’s vision.
Our job also involved upgrading their UI to a premium approach since they use premium ingredients in their products.
MY ROLE
I worked alongside another UX designer, so most activities were done together, such as briefing, mapping of current flows, designing new interfaces and flows, and developing a new style guide.
understanding our customers
We created a survey to understand the consumers’ habits regarding this product type and conducted interviews with consumers of similar products. This research brought insights on many topics, such as:
- the habit of consuming and buying this kind of product,
- favorite brands,
- our client’s product is relatively unknown and only sold online,
- the product was perceived as for special occasions, while other brands were for daily consumption,
- the customer perception regarding the subscription product and its advantages.
FACING OUT CURRENT STRUCTURE
We analyzed the current platform design regarding layout and heuristics. The issues that stood out the most were:
- the use of components in a different way than they were intended,
- the need for an easy way out from pop-ups (x to close out),
- the lack of system status,
- overall lack consistency and of a style guide,
- the need for text coherence, so it could be easily understood by the user.
THE SUBSCTIPTION FLOW
The subscription program was the main problem shared with us. It offered different levels of discounts depending on the product, free delivery, the possibility of canceling it at any time, and allowed the customers to select the desired flavors on a monthly basis.
While reviewing it, besides the lengthy set of rules, the way the subscription option was presented was the biggest problem.
The current platform offered a toggle on a pop-up for the user to activate the subscription, but nothing else on the client’s journey changed from a regular purchase.
Consequently, the recurring scenario was unhappy and surprised customers requesting to cancel an unintended subscription.
By investigating further the cancelation requests, we found out that a couple of customers were taking advantage of the free delivery benefit and canceling their subscriptions right after the purchase.
pREMIUM LOOK
Analyzing their request that their brand should reflect the premium ingredients used, we took the time to do a benchmark on other well-known products in the premium category.
After reviewing brands such as Nespresso, L’or, and Kopenhagen (Brazilian chocolate brand) to name a few, we decided to create a dark theme with gold yellow for texts and details.
testing
The prototype in the high-fidelity version was put to the test using the Maze platform. The goal was to measure the level of difficulty in executing each task of a purchase journey. Here are some of the findings:
- Users understood the minimal quantities requirement for the subscription,
- 36% tried to click on the option “continue without registration”, showing they are not willing to create a relationship with the brand.
- 35% chose that the charity institution could be chosen by the company, showing it wasn’t an important aspect for the consumer as believed by the stakeholders.
- Testers were clicking on the status bar that dissapeared within a couple of seconds. We adjusted the time so people could read the message but they wouldn’t have to take an action over it.
- In the task for “getting to know more about the product”, testers went to the institutional area as the title contained an expression used to define the product and the button read “learn more”. To avoid misdirection, we updated the language to say “About Us”.
FINAL LOOK
