NICOLE PAPP
TEAM
MY CONTRIBUTION
​
Shopify reports, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft word, Photoshop
​
Nicole Papp - Merchant Success Manager
UX Research: Competitive Analysis, Consumer Journey, Heuristics Evaluation
Report Design: Competitive Analysis, Consumer Journey, Heuristics Evaluation
Design: Web design
Data Analysis: KPI's, sales reporting, website analytics, excel ​
TOOLS
PROJECT SUMMARY
Overview
Not all clients are made the same and not all realize the real implication of ensuring their e-commerce website is easy to use. Several clients of mine have a goal to increase their conversion rate, however, they do not have expertise in user experience and what improvements need to be made to their site in order for their customers to find the right information. I took this approach to both my client base as well as colleagues' clients. User Experience improements can be anything from the home page layout, the information architecture of the menu, the organization of product collections or the user flow of their checkout. The key problem that this ongoing project is trying to solve is what improvements should be implemented to a client's site to improve the conversion rate or other key performance indicators. A key thought I have when evaluating a client's site is whether there is anything obstructing a customer from successfully going through a purchase flow, including but not limited to the homepage, content pages, product page(s) and the checkout flow. The primary process that is used when conducting any site analysis is to discuss with the merchant what was done to their site as well as what areas of focus they currently have. Combining both of those perspectives allows me to have a starting point for the recommendations I make. As a result of the site audits I have done, both my clients as well as colleague's clients have seen improvements in their customer experience.
FINAL PRODUCTS
​MALIA MILLS
Malia Mills is a swimwear company that embraces empowerment of women and the way their bodies naturally are. When founded in 1993, the Malia Mills Team's aim was to create lingerie fitting bathing suits and this still remains today. This UX site analysis includes sections on SEO as well, but its primary focus is the user flow and design of the website.
​
​
​
​ENDY SLEEP
Overview: Endy Sleep is an all Canadian designed and manufactured mattress company that won the 2016 Tech Week Top 100 Innovator award. The UX site analysis that I worked on with them had a bit of a different process to complete it then the one above. The analysis consisted of figuring out the best process to combine two different pages together; one is their product overview page and one was is their product page where you could make a product purchase.
​
Goal: The goal of this project was to eliminate duplicated content that confused the user and to also condense the steps it would take a customer to get to checkout to purchase a product. The result was a "super page".
​
Process:
​
-
Took an inventory of the current components of the product overview page
-
Took an inventory of the current components of the Shop page
-
Analyzed both pages for repeated components
-
Using the determined repeated components, I came up with new components suggestions
-
Evaluated the user flow to get to both the product overview page and the shop page
-
Created a new suggested user flow of the new "super page"
-
Created a mock up of what the page should look like
​
Endy Sleep - The product overview page
Endy Sleep - The product purchase page
Endy Sleep - FInal Super Page Mock Up
THE PROCESS
This is an ongoing project as I provide a user experience site analysis to various clients at different points in their business journey.
The following components are included:
​
-
Analysis of the client's website for improvements in the way information is presented
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​​
​
​
​​
-
A final customized "Site Health Check" document that outlines the different areas that a client needs to improve their site
​
​
To complete the site health check report, I followed these steps:
​
-
Had conversations with my client to understand their goals and current pain points of their website
-
Gathered initial data on the user persona's of my client's customers to understand their behaviour patterns
-
Conducted a competitive analysis of websites in a similar industry
-
Conducted a heuristic evaluation of my client's website and made notes on where I found confusion; starting with the home page and any other applicable pages in the information architecture, especially the checkout flow
-
Evaluated KPI's such as conversion rate, cost per customer and identified trends in the user data
-
Formulated recommendations based on my knowledge in UX best practices such as relevance, usability, action & value proposition
-
Researched or designed visual examples to represent my recommendations
-
Wrote the final report with visual examples
Malia Mills - My evaluation of a possible user path when making a purchase decision
Malia Mills - Conducting a heuristic evaluation of a client's site
Malia Mills - KPI calculation to help inform UX strategies
Objectives
-
Identify issues and suggest fixes for several important user flows including the checkout, any oboarding activity, important forms, and product pages
-
Help my clients improve the user experience of their sites in order to improve user satisfaction and ultimately their the conversion rates
KEY LESSONS
Challenges
-
Identifying which changes have been added by the merchant recently versus which components of the website the merchant may not be aware are causing issues
-
Suggesting implementation strategies can sometimes be a challenge if the merchant doesn't necessarily have a budget in place to implement the changes
What did I learn?
-
The number one issue that was overlooked by merchants was the ease of flow between various sections on their site; I learnt that in order to make a user experience a good one, you need to remove as many obstacles out of the way for your customers
-
Merchants don't always have design resources on their team so simple changes can go a long way
-
Rather than overwhelming your clients with a long in depth document of what to change, keeping the usability improvement suggestions to a minimum amount will ensure that the changes get considered or implemented
-
Its important to have an ongoing discussion about the usability changes suggested instead of simply sending the document; scheduling a phone call to walk through the suggested changes (including the why behind them) is always effective
What would I have done differently?
-
When I first started creating a UX site analysis, I would simply dive into the user flows of the website without consulting with the merchant to gather context. Going forward, my aim is to always consult with the merchant to understand any data that they currently have on their website (google analytics views or customer service requests for example) and use this information begin my analysis
-
Initially, my site audits were quite lengthly. Going forward, I must ensure that the length of the site audit is easily digestible for the client to implement the changes from rather than overwhelming them
My Role
-
As a merchant success manager at Shopify Plus, I occasionally evaluate my client's websites to provide in depth user experience improvement suggestions
-
Using my knowledge in user flows, information architecture and UI design I am able to provide insightful suggestions for the merchant to implement. Implementing these suggested changes link to improving the user flows that a customer would take to complete a goal; ultimately improving conversions
-
Improving the user experience for my client's customers
-
Creating these reports opens the door for conversation with my clients on areas of improvement for their website. These reports allow me to provide my clients with concrete user experience improvement suggestions to help add changes to the website from a design and user flow perspective.
-
Making these changes tends to help improve the client's conversion rates.
