APPENDIX
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
I did an open card sort to help give me an early indication of potential ways to group items and label the gaps. 17 participants were asked to arrange 56 clothing items into categories of their choosing to get a sense of how users talk and think about clothing.
While Maternity Collection had 100% agreement, the categorization of the remaining items were still quite ambiguous. Participants have use many vagued labels for categories.
I decided to conduct a hybrid card sort this time to see if the 11 participants are able to sort the items in accordance to a group of labels obtained from the open sort results. Participants were allowed to create their own labels for items they don't see fit as well. These were the standardized categories in reference to both the similarity matrix as well as the PCA:
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Bottom
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Accessories
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Home
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Airism
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Sports
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HeatTech
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Maternity
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Outerwear
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Top & 1 Piece Wear
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Innerwear
After much consideration, I decided to remove Airism to avoid repetition of items like tops, bottom, innerwear. I have also decided to use "Winter Essentials" which will include HeatTech items because it makes more sense that way. Lastly, I also add on "Shoes & Socks" to best represents footwear items. Below were the revised labels for my hybrid sort.
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Bottoms
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Accessories
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Home
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Winter Essentials
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Tops
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Shoes & Socks
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Maternity
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Outerwear
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1 Piece Wear
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Innerwear
HYBRID SORT RESULTS
While 3D Knit, has got half and half votes to add it under both outerwear and winter essentials; I decided to include it into these 2 categories because I personally feel 3D- Knit can be worn interchangeably during winter as well as any indoor settings.
Basing on the 11 card sort participants, I reorganised items into categories that have at least 6 votes from participants.
SITEMAP
In reference with the final results from my hybrid sort, I then built a sitemap to use it as a guide when building the information architecture of the site.
- too complicated, most users wont read everything
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- sizing on the img
- not intuitive
- remove labels
EXISTING SITEMAP
REDESIGNED SITEMAP
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
These are the listings of competitors mentioned by my users during my user interviews.
PLUS
DELTA
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SIZE CHART: SIMPLISTIC SIZE CHART
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EASY REFERENCING ON PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, SALES MENU AT THE TOP
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HOMEPAGE: MESSY WEBSITE, EVERY PAGE IS OVERCROWDED WITH PROMOTIONAL AND MARKETING BANNERS
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DOESN'T ALLOW FOR GUEST CHECKOUT
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CONFUSING NAVIGATION
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MINIMALIST SITE
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COMPLICATED SIZE CHART, ADOPTING UNIQLO'S CHART CONCEPT
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ALLOW FOR GUEST CHECKOUT
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SLOW LOADING WEBSITE
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MINIMALIST SITE
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EASY REFERENCING ON PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, SALES MENU AT THE TOP
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HOMEPAGE A LITTLE OVERCROWDED WITH PRODUCT LISTINGS
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REPETITIVE MENU ON HOMEPAGE
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SIMPLE SIZE CHART
DESIGN ITERATIONS
EXISTING
DESIGN 1
EXISTING SITEMAP
REVISED SITEMAP
Repetitive navigation menu confuses users.
Sales" as part of the navigation menu for easy identification.
Overcrowded information on homepage.
DESIGN 2
Cleaner Homepage featuring new products as well as company's mission statement and goal (sustainable design concept).
After the 1st Usability Testing, user commented that they have to keep scrolling downwards to see the entire content due to the large image size of the product.
No issues were found with the 2nd Testings.
DESIGN 1
EXISTING
Categories display on clothing items are overwhelming to users.
Creating a page for each gender section allows room to display featured products rather than cluterring the home page.
Each Categories are listed with title and relevant pictures for visual clarity purposes.
DESIGN 2
After the 1st Usability Testings, users feedback to add subcategories in each category items in the form of dropdown menu for quicker navigation to their area of interests.
No issues found with the 2nd Testings.
EXISTING
Overcomplicated size chart. It was thorough but it didn't quite serves its purpose. Users commented that they would rather visit the physical store instead.
DESIGN 1
A simplistic size chart showcasing the measurements of the outfit
would help users choose their right size easily and confidently.
In my first design, sizing chart would appear in the outfit gallery when clicked. However users feedback that it would be more intuitive if size chart opens right below where it was clicked. Thus, i have switched its location in my 2nd design.
DESIGN 2
Initially I thought that the location of the lines and measurements were well understood, however after my 2nd Testings, users commented that it would be clearer to add descriptions on each part of the measurements. Adjustments have then been made.
EXISTING
Forced member registrations puts users off, they would rather not make the purchase.
DESIGN 1
DESIGN 2
Created an "Auto Save" option for quick member registration, to save contact information when users filling up payment information.
However, after the 1st Usability Testings; users did not notice the feature and felt that perhaps the existing form has too many sections to take note of it. Therefore, I decided to create a minimalist checkout version. Despite so, after my 2nd Usability Testings; users still didn't notice the feature.