SCOPE
DURATION
MY ROLE
Website
2 Weeks
Ux Researcher
Ux Designer
BACKGROUND
Uniqlo is a Japanese clothing apparel company that specialises in designing, manufacturing and retailing exceptionally high quality "life-enhancing basic apparel". Their clear and differentiated brand focus helps Uniqlo to stand out and make Uniqlo the go-to place for classic and dependable apparel. As of 30 November 2019, the company reported that 2,249 Uniqlo stores were operational worldwide. Their unparalleled in-store experience gives customers another reason to keep coming back.
My goal was to redesign Uniqlo's website that conveys their original product at best and at the same time provide an online experience that complements their in-store experience.
HOW UNIQLO IS COPING?
With the recent COVID-19 crisis, it has led people to significantly limit physical interactions. Self-imposed social distancing to avoid contagion, together with the strict confinement measures implemented have put a large share of traditional brick-and-mortar retail virtually on hold, at least temporarily. This has led to a surge in e-commerce and accelerated digital transformation and many retailers have been forced to carefully rethink their strategy in light of COVID-19.
As Uniqlo being one of my go-to brand, which leads me to wonder; how well have Uniqlo been catching up in online commerce.
MY EXPECTATIONS FOR AN ONLINE SITE
Being an avid online shopper myself, I typically have certain preferences when I shop online:
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Homepage Visual Clarity: I like a site that is clean, simple and clear enough for me to keep a lookout for latest happenings.
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Navigation/Discovery: I also want to be able to scan through really quickly and navigate to my area of interests.
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The Checkout System: I generally prefer guest checkout unless I know for certain that I will frequent the site.
UNDERSTANDING MY USERS
I kicked off the project by conducting both in-person and remote (zoom) interviews with 6 tech-savvy participants.
I want to know what are their shopping behaviours; what are their preferences as well as frustrations...
I decided that it only makes sense to combine usability testing along with interviews on the existing website to get a sense of how people would go about using it and what are their pain points while using it.
Therefore, I have laid out 3 tasks for my participants that were aligned with my set of expectations for an online site :
1) Find out what is the latest arrival on Homepage
2) Find pants of your size
3) Add pants to cart and checkout
KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE INTERVIEWS
With the datas that I have gathered, I decided to do an affinity mapping to help me identify the common behaviours, traits,
needs, the plus points as well as the pain points from using the site.
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Users shopped online for the convenience of doorstep delivery services; the ability to keep a lookout for sales and promotions easily; as well as being able to shop anytime and anywhere.
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Users shopped online averagely at least 2 to 3 times/month
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PCs or tablets are the 2 commonly used device
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Clothing sites are one of the commonly browsed site among all participants
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Most users are would keep a lookout for promotions and sales and most users search categories by gender
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The common frustrations among users are inaccurate sizing fit, overkilled marketing banners on homepage, and lengthy checkout process
USABILITY TESTING ON THE EXISTING WEBSITE
PLUS POINTS
Quick Access
to HomePage
"Store
Locator"
Detailed Material Descriptions & Reviews
"I like how I could click onto Uniqlo's logo, and it will direct me straight to homepage"
"I like how I could click onto Uniqlo's logo, and it will direct me straight to homepage"
" I like that not only Uniqlo has provide thorough descriptions on the material but also customer reviews"
4 out of 6 Users
5 out of 6 Users
5 out of 6 Users
PAIN POINTS
Overly
Cluttered Homepage
Complicated
Size Chart
Forced
Registration
" Whoa, that is a lot of information on homepage. I have to scroll all the way down to checkout what is the latest arrival?"
" Uniqlo does put in a lot of effort and details..but it's little bit too much? I just want a simple way to help me get the right size"
" Damn, I have to register before checking out? I'm too lazy to do that, I'll checkout the store next time since it is everywhere"
4 out of 6 Users
5 out of 6 Users
5 out of 6 Users
Font Type Not
Easily Readable
" Bolded fonts quite difficult
to read"
2 out of 6 Users
Subcategories
Overload
" Menu Label overly crowded with many different subcategories, it is hard for me to see what collections have they got"
4 out of 6 Users
RECOMMENDATIONS
While Uniqlo did well in some aspects, such as providing very detailed sizing chart. However, such effort didn't provide much value from users perspectives. 5 out of 6 users feedback that it is too complicated that they would rather visit the physical store instead, for fear that they would buy the wrong size.
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Homepage & Menu Reorganization: Good visual clarity and information architecture helps business optimise their marketing strategy.
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Simpler Size Chart: An effective and simple sizing method helps users gauge their clothes size easily and confidently which therefore leads to increase customer conversion rate.
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Checkout System: Fast and simple checkout and registration process will help increase customer conversion rate as well as lower abandonment rate.
THE PERSONA
Using my research synthesized data, I then defined my persona Ferrene to help me
focus on redesigning the website for my main user group in accordance to their needs.
USER FLOW
In order to ensure that my design concept will provide for a more seamless user experience,
I came out with a user flow to help me visualise how users will interact with
the pages differently on the redesigned web.
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
In total, I went through 2 iterations using both Mid and Hi Fidelity Prototype, with each time testing with 5 new users and making changes based on feedback received.
HOMEPAGE
Design Iteration 1
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Removal of double navigation menu from original homepage to avoid confusion among users.
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Create a minimalist concept that displays content that most users would lookout for such as " Latest Collections" and "New Arrivals".
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Inclusion of "Lifewear" Information (as a promotional campaign to create awareness among users about Uniqlo's sustainability plans and initiatives).
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Featured "Sales" on menu to allow for users to locate for promotional items easily.
Design Iteration 2
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Resized to smaller and clickable images to product page to reduce users' scrolling time
CATEGORIES & SUBCATEGORIES MENU
Design Iteration 1
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Design concept built from the basis of my card sort results, sitemap as well as inspirations from the competitive analysis.
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The creation of a new page featuring a list of imaged categories gives users more visual clarity on all Uniqlo products.
Design Iteration 2
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Based on users feedback, I have added subcategories in the form of a drop-down menu in each category to allow users to navigate to their area of interest quickly.
SIZE CHART
Design Iteration 1
-
A very thorough size chart on existing Uniqlo's site shows how Uniqlo is playing a lot of emphasis on attention to details. However most users find it hard to digest the load of information provided.
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By providing direct measurements of the outfit helps users reduce the chances of buying the wrong size, as different outfit has different cuttings.
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A simple yet effective chart like this will help users choose their right size easily.
Design Iteration 2
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Based on users' feedback, though there is a line to indicate measurement segments but each measurements could have labelings for better clarity purposes and easy identification.
CHECKOUT
Design Iteration 1
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From the 1st usability testings, most users get put off by the fact that Uniqlo forces customers to register membership before checking out.
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Therefore, I feel it is imperative to resolve this as this may be the key determining factor to customer abandonment rate.
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By creating an option to "Auto Save" contact information during the payment process, users will be less put off with the registration process because all they need is just setting their passwords.
Design Iteration 2
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On my 2nd testings, users feedback that they didn't notice the "Auto Save" function and that probably because the existing checkout form was overcrowded with many steps.
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In order to resolve this, I decided to redesign the checkout page to as clean and minimal as possible. I took some inspirations from competitors across.
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I have also decided to rename my "Auto Save" feature to "Free Membership" since Uniqlo has already been offering free memberships and from the psychological aspect, people pay more notice when they see the word "FREE".
SEQ SCORES
UT: USABILITY TESTINGS
Apart from the qualitative datas that I have gathered from my usability testings with users, I decided to also include the quantitative data (SEQ Metrics) to measure the different aspects of usability and also serves as a benchmarks for systems to track changes in usability. Users were asked to rate the task on how easy or difficult it was after each phase of usability testings.
This is the summary of the SEQ results between the existing website and the 2 design iterations. All the tasks saw an increased improvements from the existing site.
NEXT STEPS
While there is much more work to be done both in terms of research and testing, many other factors should be put into consideration such as technical and social challenges as well as inputs from various stakeholders.
If time permits, I would also want to do another round of usability testing; ideally on-site with a more targeted pool of users to
ensure that the online site experience complements the in-store experience.
Let's Work Together!
