Polypet Website Redesign
Polypet was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Loo in 2004. They are an e-commerce store that sells a wide array of affordable pet food and supplies.
The objective of this individual project was to redesign an existing e-commerce website. This was our second project during the User Experience Design Immersion Course at General Assembly. I was in charge of the entire website redesign from research to ideation, prototyping, and testing.
I focused on identifying the pet owners purchasing habits and pain points while purchasing pet supplies online and offline and also enhancing the current user interface of the Polypet website.
Platform
Website
My Role
UX Designer
Tools
Figma, Miro, Google Docs, Google Sheets
The Challenge
Customers need an easier way to see the ingredients of products and be able to repurchase them easily on the next visit because some pets may have food allergies or dietary requirements. Hence, owners may need the same products in the future.
The Solution
By providing a clear presentation of the ingredients and allowing customers to repurchase the items through purchase history, pet owners will make more informed decisions on the food they are buying and have a quicker check-out process.
Design Process
Discover
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User research
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Competitive analysis
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Comparative analysis
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Usability Testing
Define
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Affinity mapping
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Persona
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User Flow
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Problem & Solution Statement
Develop
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Sketching
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Wireframing
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Lo-fi prototype
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Usability Testing Iterations
Deliver
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Hi-fi prototype
Discovery
In order to identify what are the behaviours and pain points of pet owners, I conducted user interviews and organized the insights using an affinity map.
Competitve analysis was also done to other E-commerce company to understand what features are they offering.
User Research
User interviews were conducted with 10 pet owners to identify their purchasing habits and pain points, to discover why they shop or don’t shop online, and what impacts their decision to check out a product. Below are the insights that I have gathered.
Competitive Analysis
For this project, we were given a set of required features the website should have. A feature analysis was done on companies where the interviewees frequent, Petco, one of the top pet stores in the US, and lastly with Shopee. Perro Mart, Petco, and Shopee have the most features that meet the requirements and competitive analysis was done on these 3 companies.
Positives
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Clear product description
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Reviews with pictures
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Product page shows how many reviews and have favourite feature
Negatives
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Too many categories on navigation
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Cluttered with too many items on homepage
Positives
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Clear product description
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Shows video and catalogue of items in the product page
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Verified reviews with pictures
Negatives
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Does not have a global navigation bar
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Categories are hidden in menu icon
Positives
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Stock availability indicated
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Shows how many reviews and how many people have bought the item
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Variety of pet supplies from different stores
Negatives
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Pet items can only be found through the search bar
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Product description varies for different seller
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Description can be detailed but very wordy
Define
With the research insights gathered, it was used create two personas and help to define the user flows to be the guide through the ideation and design stages.
Personas
From the user research insights, we identified two primary personas. Jim Junkie, who regularly visits the gym and quick to decide on his bookings. Passive Ema, who browses for programmes or events and want to understand more about the programmes before booking it.
User Flows
Using the personas, the user flows were created to determine how each persona will navigate through the website.
Design
After the defining who I am designing for, I sketched out ideas of ways to implement the required features and at same time solve the issues faced by our personas.
Usability test were conducted to help in uncovering any usability issues on the website.
Ideation & Solution
Home Page
One of the goals was to give Polypet a more updated look. Using the competitive analysis, I implemented some elements commonly seen in e-commerce websites such as hero banner and product cards.
Purchase History
Creating a purchase history will enable pet owners to quickly buy the items they wish to buy again without the hassle of searching for them again.
Product Page
For the product page, the priority is making it easy for the pet owners to clearly see the details of the product. Information has to be clear and organised.
Cart
Similar to the product page, the information on the cart has to be clear and organised in order to have a quick and fuss free check out process.
Iterations
The sketches were converted to wireframes using Figma and the Lo-Fi prototype was used for the usability test. This will help with identifying any usability issues before converting it to a Hi-Fi prototype.
Each participant of the usability test was asked to fill out a satisfaction survey and the Lo-Fi prototype we received a score of 84. The main usability issue is described below.
Main Usability Issue
Users are unable to double-check the items and shipping details before making payment
Recommendations
To provide a summary page of the items and shipping details to enable users to double-check their orders before making payment.
Final Prototype
With feedback from the usability test, I came out with the final iteration for Polypet.
Key Takeaways
Next Steps
To refine the filter function to enable users to find their items faster and also to further improve the overall visual design of the website to strengthen the brand identity.
Reflections
As a pet owner, I thought that everyone had a similar purchasing habit as me but this project helped me realize the importance of user research. Everyone has their ways or habits of doing things, doing user research help us ensure we are designing for the user and not what we think we would do.