Case Study: Daily Yoga
Ecom's (with brands like Max Fashion and Splash) is the leading fashion retailer in the middle east and the gulf region. While the sales of these brands inside malls and offline stores have been growing year by year, the sales from online channels (Eg Maxfashion.com) have been on the decline. It is principally because customers do not get to try the products before purchase (to check the fabric, the fit and the overall look) and hence are reluctant to buy stuff online.
Adsnurl has decided to build a new and independent fashion e-commerce app. This app shows the limited customer set of products (approx. 500), but the key differentiator being that customer can get these products on the same day for trial (less than 2 hours).
The customer has to just pay a nominal fee of 7 AED per product as a trial fee (Which has to be paid upfront. Cash on Delivery is not allowed for trial fee payment). Once delivered, the customer can try all the clothes ordered, decide to buy or reject each product.
Customer will have 30 minutes to try all the products while the delivery guy waits. In case the customer chooses to buy a product (let’s assume the selling price is 100 AED), the trial fee is waived off and adjusted in the cost of the product. The rejected items will return to the delivery guy.
To begin with, I needed to build my case. One does not simply start making a product. It’s critical to get all these insights before embarking on the design itself to ensure that the team is solving the right problems and aligned on the project goals.
The flowchart below outlines the core stages of my redesign process. I chose to take an iterative approach, testing and improving the design throughout.
To thoroughly investigate the problem space of online shopping, I conducted observations in stores and online for fashion brands and other competitors. And then I conducted interviews based on topic maps. Next, I coded users’ responses by looking for commonalities in the challenges users faced and their contexts.
My principle is “Start With Why” to clearly understand why users would need this app. Why should they care? It establishes the context and can help identify the problem users are facing.
When designing for international markets, having a more international sample often reveals problems that could well exist for domestic users, too. We found that there were no distinct differences between cultures when it comes to main usability issues such as navigation. It resonates with this finding by Jacob Nielsen:
“People are the same the world over, and all the usability guidelines remain the same. After all, usability guidelines are derived from the principles of human computer interaction (HCI), which are founded on the characteristics of computers and the human brain and the many ways the two differ.”
First, I created a provisional persona for a typical user based on online research and the base of users within my friends and family. This persona was created with assumptions and not fully research-based, but it was something that I came back to throughout my project to guide my design decisions and priorities. (If this was a bigger project I would want to validate with more user interviews.)
Sr. Executive, Etihad
Fatima is from Kuwait, working in Dubai as a Senior crew member in Etihad Airways. She is a busy person with lots of meetings and activites to end. With such a busy lifetyle, it gets difficult for her to take time out of her career/home needs and buy the right apparel. Running on tight schedules, she misses her ‘amazon delivery most of the time, and to schedule a return is a hassle. She wonders how will she get over this crisis.
I used the Jobs To Be Done framework to explore a context in which a user would use it and understand their motivation and desired outcome.
It culminated into artefacts called Job Stories:
When I am shopping online, I am confused with sizes and I wish I can try them before buying.
I want to go out on a family event, and I do not have time to go to the store so I want it delivered home.
I want to try all my dresses so as to buy the best fit and avoid the hassle of returning.
I want a single & simple way to watch a lot of items quickly and save my hours of queue.
I don't have much knowledge of fabric, want to touch & feel before buying the dress.
I opted to further validate my assumptions by usability testing and interviewing a comparative demographic: millennial, online-shoppers who are users of Amazon, Zara, Myntra, H&M, etc.
A significant portion of users who reach the home screen has the intention of buying specific items
Answers collected to support the assumption that there is a significant portion of users who shop online only when they have purchase-intent for a specific item(s):
6 out of 10 users tested said that they shop online with specific item in mind 90% or more of the time
Only 4 out of 10 users noted that they shop online without specific item in mind more often
Users with specific items in mind look forward to having the option to try the fit and fabric as well
Users’ behaviour in response to the above scenarios further validate assumption #2, as users with purchase-intent will go for significantly more than place order online
Time taken to try apparel by a user (as discussed by a group of 10 female)
User’s time requirement to try an outfit varies with item, and if they are trying to create a match
A significant portion of users are willing to pay for the products they order to try and later buy it
I asked users if they are willing to pay for this service per product, to which most of them agreed — however, the behaviour was a bit confusing.
6 out of 10 users tested said that they shop online with specific item in mind 90% or more of the time
Only 4 out of 10 users noted that they shop online without specific item in mind more often
People want to be able to quickly decide an outfit without compromising their creativity and sense of self. Statement pieces reflect personality. Individuals who have statement pieces, tie their identity with their outfits.
Making a collection of products based on availability for a home test fit. Assuming not all the product will be eligible. For a brand selling all kinds of lifestyle products, the possibilities of having products which are not eligible for test fit is quite high.
Making a single Order Id for both: products for test fit & products purchased instantly; e.g. the user has already purchased socks but wants to try out shoes
Identifying the time required to try the products ordered for fit — if it is feasible and finding a solution. Based on Assumption 3, the time will vary as per the order type — 3 t-shirts will take as much time as a Dress.
Tracking the entire order, time calculation and successful purchase/return of products. A clarity in logistic-ops is a must.
To help prioritize the issues, I used a 2x2 map to help rank the category of issues by how important they are to the business (x-axis) and the users (y-axis).
I opted to further validate my assumptions by usability testing and interviewing a comparative demographic: millennial, online-shoppers who are users of Amazon, Zara, Myntra, H&M, etc.
I had to keep in mind the multiple use cases where the user will just buy/test-fit or both, and also the time & fee adjustment accordingly.
What I felt is to play with toggle buttons for the Test Fit feature, and not to disrupt the Law of Similarity
Knowing that the product is targeted both for Arabic and non-Arabic, I had to make it scalable for two design versions: an English and an Arabic one. Of course, I first designed the English version, which can adapt to the Arabic UI by mirroring the design right-to-left (RTL). But when you’re designing specifically for Arab users, it’s not enough to just mirror the design. There are some local specific usability considerations to apply.
Using screen real estate smartly: Arabic is a “wordier” language; therefore, it might take up more space. I had to keep this in mind when designing layout and UI element pixel size
Paying attention to legibility: Arabic characters are very complex; they have overhanging and looping features. The type needs to be at least four points larger than the corresponding English type to achieve the same degree of legibility. Also had to avoid bold and italics for the same reason.
Mirrored F-shape: Arabic-speaking users mirror the F-shaped reading behaviour, so had to put the most relevant information on top, as many left-to-right (LTR) sites do.
Icons that indicate direction: e.g. play or rewind buttons on media players, progress indicators, and a clock’s hands should always rotate clockwise too;
Icons that represent objects usually held with the right hand (e.g. phone icon);
Any words are written in other languages and Hindu-Arabic numerals (1,2,3, etc.);
Icons with user expectations: consider whether there is a user expectation for the icon to look a certain way. Also, if changing the icon’s alignment would change its meaning.
Images: had to make sure that the images are culturally appropriate for target users
The color are picked carefully to match the flat aesthetic of the app design
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A solution to keep both — the normal and Test fit products in a single card as discussed in the pain points, hence the toggle button will help me identify the product and its further lifecycle.
In case there is no product for a test fit, the user will simply proceed with the regular checkout
Selecting the timing is very critical since the task mentioned me the delivery to be in hours — I am not using the date selection here, assuming it is for the same day.
Based on Assumptions, the following things are to keep in mind
The user can try X number of products in Y time. This has been researched. Based on product selected, if the time calculations exceed Y time, further selection of products to be denied
In case we want to exceed time Y to Y1, the price of the product selected should increase; this is to ward off any constraint on demand & supply line. The price can go from AED3.00 to AED 4.00 if the time 30 minutes exceeds to 45 minutes
A limitation on products for test fit is must — based on previous research, no more than 3 dresses, or 6 t shirts etc can be selected for test fit. This data will come from more research
Safekeeping of product packaging — all tags and packaging must be kept as is it in case of a return, otherwise, a penalty is to be charged.
The user can edit its information before confirming the order
The user can easily track the order on the map; in case there is no in-app navigation — a button to navigate it to maps is there. Once the order is received, in other countries — I might have gone with a confirmation OTP, however not for the markets of Middle East. Upon a successful trial, the user can simply use the toggle to accept or reject the product.
The final price payable will be calculated accordingly — and based on that the user will proceed to the payment page or give cash on delivery.
For developing a sleek mobile application that maximised the global user experience and enhanced efficiency, we followed a well-defined process. Our development process comprised the following points summarizing the overall engagement.
The engagement with Ads & URL helped the food app in UK attract more customers.
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