Overview
Prompted by Bitesize UX, I was challenged to complete a GV Sprint to address usability issues for an eCommerce startup, House2Home.
Challenge
House2Home offers affordable home decor items, however users struggle to understand their personal style and to select cohesive pieces within their budget.
Solution
The Starter Kit – a monthly rental subscription that offers selectable curated items suitable to the user’s personal style.
Role
Product Designer
Duration
5 days /GV Design Sprint
Day 1 : Explore
The first day of the design sprint as understanding the problem through user research and mapping out possible solutions.
Bitesize UX provided a user persona, based off of 10 user interviews and highlighted the user’s pain points and goals.
Future State Journey Mapping
With the user persona provided, I decided to visualize several cases to help Ally shop with confidence within her budget.
The best solution was to create a Starter Rental Kit.
Ally would be able to rent out 3 home decor products every month, without breaking the bank.
Day 2 : Sketch
The solution of a Rental Starter Kit inspired me to exercise lightning demos on existing websites with subscription features.
With inspiration from the lightning demos, I decided the Product Page was the critical screen to sketch. It was necessary to design as many possible solutions on how the user would add an item to the Starter Rental Kit.
By using the crazy 8s method, I selected the screen that gave the user flexibility to rent or buy a selected item, while also allowing the user to be aware of the Starter Kit they created.
Day 3 : Storyboard
To create a storyboard, I decided to sketch more screens to understand the critical flow of the user.
Another important part of the user flow was to take a Style Quiz and receive a Style Profile.
In order for the client to provide the user with a curated list of items, the user should first sign up.
Day 4 : Prototype
Having sketched out the critical route, it was now easier to create wireframes for how the website should look.
Turning the wireframes into prototype was the most exciting part of this journey.
Interactive Prototype
Day 5 : Testing
5 participants signed up to test the prototype to validate its efficiency. Each participant has found the idea of the rental system liberating as they understood the constraints of decorating a new home.
The general feedback was positive and below listed were insightful takeaways that I would add in the next release of this project.
Usability Testing Insight
Several users wanted more flexibility of options for the Style Quiz.
- As there were limited choices, users were compelled to choose and therefore felt that the result of Style Profile was inaccurate.
- Users should be given more options to make the quiz inclusive and personal for each user.
- Promote the style quiz on the homepage along the new starter kit.
Most users could not figure out how to return to the Products page when prompted to add more items to the Starter Rental Kit.
- Add a back button for a better user flow.
- A delete option was also added to the Starter Kit, because we all make mistakes.
Final Takeaways
- The time constraints of a modified Design Sprint forced creativity and accelerated productivity.
- Looking at the broader picture throughout this project was helpful to focus on important details.
- A lot can be completed in just 5 days than seems possible.
