Silô

User Research + Testing

Project Brief

PROBLEM

A digital platform that publicly introduces products and manufacturing services by social enterprises to ethically conscious consumers that may be individuals or other businesses.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Businesses: social enterprises or businesses that are in the process of minimizing negative footprint.
Consumers: ethically conscious buyers.

OBJECTIVE

The objective is to have a decentralized marketplace that presents factual representations of each enterprise’s values, so that their target audience can swiftly locate their products.

CONSTRAINTS

Unknown long-term implications of blockchain
Unethical practices hidden by enterprises
Internet accessibility by rural businesses

Market and Competitor Research

RETAIL BRANDS PORTRAYING AS ETHICALLY CONCERNED CAUSING OUTRAGE AMONGST CONSCIOUS CONSUMERS

Reformation is a clothing company ($150m in 2019 sales) that owes their success due to their portrayal of being environmentally “sustainable, responsible and ethical”; However, June 2020 was when past employees unveiled the disparity between the ethics treated through the brand’s reputation and the actual reality on the racism happening internally.

This is not a new occurrence in the world of branding of businesses, though, where the vagueness of the umbrella term “ethical” attracts conscious consumers who have limited options to buy from. This brings the question on what “ethical” means to the company, which is not clear to the public-- is a company’s ethics applied to only to the environment, only to the conveyor belt of workers, both, or a different degree all together?

CURRENT PRESENTATIONS OF ETHICAL MANUFACTURING

Good On You measures on Likert scales out of 5 for three variables: Planet, People, Animals.

Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) is a non-profit team of global social compliance experts that monitors and certifies according to their analysis within these categories: compliance with laws and work regulations; forced/child labour; harassment/abuse; compensation/benefits; hours of work; discrimination; health/safety; “Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining”; environmental standards; customs compliance; and security.

Aliexpress is a online retail platform that serves both individual customers and dropshipping businesses; and Spocket is a dropshipping product sourcer that can filter their manufacturers out to just “eco-friendly” enterprises. None of the two platforms have transparency/prove to back up claims of the “ethical” portrayal.

Interview Script

INTRODUCTION

Hi [name]. Thanks for taking time out of your day and allowing me to interview you. I’m currently working on a project about online retail and I would like to ask you a few questions. This should take about 15 minutes. Before we start, do I have your consent to transcribe our dialogue and to use your name?

WARM UP QUESTIONS

What do you do for a living?
How would your friends describe you as a person?
How would you describe your decision-making style?
What’s your idea of “fun” on the internet, excluding social media?

GENERAL QUESTIONS

What are the instances where you had made online purchases?
Why were you inclined to make this shopping choice online rather than in-store?
What positive and negative experiences did you find during that transactional journey?
What are the reasons why you would ever choose online shopping over in-store shopping?

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

What qualities about a product and a brand do you look for to verify authenticity, before making your purchase?
What makes you a loyal customer to certain brands?
How does branding play a role in giving your trust to their products?
Does negative PR of a brand affect your loyalty to them and why?
What are your reasons for ever looking beyond the label, if you’re ever curious about a company’s motives and practices?
If ever, why would the reputation of a company’s ethical practice affect your purchasing decision? If it doesn’t matter to you, what qualities of a brand makes you begin to stray away?

WRAP UP

Well, that’s it! Thanks for being so open and candid with me; and thanks again for spending your time with me. In a few weeks, I’ll have the prototype of this product ready, if you’re interested in seeing how our interview had helped.

Interview Insights

Sustainability

PAINT POINTS

Unknown materials that is involved in the making of the finished product.

MOTIVATIONS

Present where the company is on their journey of reaching their impact goal as expressed in their mission statement to justify why they chose certain materials. Show quantitative evidence on the energy sources and amount of materials used in the making.

BEHAVIOUR

Participants feel stuck with the lack of accessibility to sustainable products, as many products that they do choose may declare that they’re sustainable but have nothing to prove them right/wrong from a consumer’s judgement during the shopping process.

Ethics

PAINT POINTS

Unknown labour, animal, and overall humane treatment involved in the process of sourcing/developing the product.

MOTIVATIONS

Present where the company is on their journey of reaching their impact goal as expressed in their mission statement to justify why they made certain economic choices and strategies they’re choosing to become more ethical.

BEHAVIOUR

Participants are unbeknownst to the journey behind every product purchase until there is news that exposes them, in which the participants would realize that the action they took to support a brand ended up contradicting the participants’ own values.

Authenticity

PAINT POINTS

Unknown actual sizing and longevity of product, as marketing and lack of transparency of brand’s mission statement gives false of product’s purpose and impact.

MOTIVATIONS

Present the purpose behind the creation of the product’s design and chosen elements. Express the motives behind a company on why they’re different from others/why they should be the desired company.

BEHAVIOUR

Participants end up losing trust in the product and the brand associated with it.

Brief of Task

KEY RESEARCH INSIGHT

When it comes to sustainable shopping, it takes a lot of time to do research for an item on so many different platforms, especially when the item could just be a menial everyday product. With greenwashing so prevalent in today’s age of desirability for eco-friendly products, it is no wonder so many well-intentioned consumers fall for products that turns out to be detrimental for the environment. Not only is there the deceiving perception of a product being beneficial for the planet, but also the deception in the product’s lifespan due to the lack of transparency from mainstream products where they are not obliged to disclose the longevity of their products.

PRODUCT

Online marketplace for both B2B and B2C consumers to purchase bulk quantities at factory-level prices

CORE TASK

Find the information of a product’s ingredients, lifespan, and sustainability rating.

Task Flow & Wireframes

Test Plan

INTRODUCTION

As part of the design process, usability tests are conducted with 5 users and 1 persona, in order to gain real-time feedback that can be incorporated to improve the design. By doing so, the app has the opportunity to maximize with optimal user experience. This test is designed for the core task: stocking up inventory. A successful flow will have the user to start on the Landing Page and end on the Thank You Page. With a total of 3 terminals, Selina has many decisions to make and consider before adding items to her purchase.

SCENARIO

Person: Selina Rodrigues
Having completed the app’s onboarding process of inputting her shipping information and customized segmented payment plan, Jessica is ready to load up on some items to sell for her eCommerce business.

SUMMARY

Android user
Ready to stock up inventory for her next eCommerce venture.
Concerned about how sustainable her products are.
Careful about what she is investing in, since items are purchased in bulk.

GOAL

To go through the various decision-making routes before she settles her payment on her final purchase for this shopping session.

Test Script

INTRODUCTION

Hi! My name is Fiona and I’m going to be walking you through this session today, where you’d be helping me see whether the app that I’m working on works as intended. Thank you for consenting to test the prototype. This session shouldn’t take longer than 45 min.

Just to clarify, it is not you that is being tested, but the app itself, so it would be ideal if you could think aloud; i.e. sight, action, thought process, opinions, and questions. I encourage you to critique as you go, so do not be afraid of being blunt. Your honest reactions would be the best help in improving the app.

Do I have consent to use your name and to transcribe our interaction throughout this session?

TASKS

Begin by describing the SCENARIO, SUMMARY, and GOAL.

Add Bamboo Toothbrushes to your wishlist.
Find the details about the Bamboo Toothbrushes item.
Add 100 toothbrushes to your cart.
Find canvas tote bags.
DM a dropshipping inquiry to the makers of the tote bags for dropshipping inquiry.
Purchase what you have in the cart.

Session 1 Output

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The usability test took place through video chat with 5 testers for the first session. The purpose of the test is to get users—with any degree of experience with online shopping—to get an intuitive feel for what works and what doesn’t.

RESULTS

The idea of buying bulk for the sake of lowest price per item was an attractive feature, as it not only saves money in the long-run, but it causes less environmental impact from shipping. However, testers were vocal about the lack of price comparison being present before quantity selection.
Having been introduced the premise of the app, the testers have expressed through how they navigate for the items that they were expecting more details on comparing different options, as the target market is not only looking for a great bulk deal for themselves or their businesses, but they’re expecting to have the convenience of easily viewing the sustainability rating for the items without having to dig into each item.

EVALUATION TASKS

Add a product of interest from landing page to the wishlist.
Find the details about the item’s make of materials, longevity, and sustainability rating.
Reserve 61+ toothbrushes in the cart.
Search for another product.
DM a dropshipping inquiry to the makers of the that other product of interest for dropshipping inquiry.
Purchase everything that is already in the cart.

SESSION 1: Tested 1st Iteration

Prototype 1

Session 2 Output

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Testers had a breeze navigating. After the second round of testing, there had been a variation of 10 testers with varying online shopping backgrounds. I noticed that the concept of this platform is not only lovable within the community of conscious buyers, but also the population that is just getting beginning to live on their own finances who really care about how they vote with their dollar.

RESULTS

In contrast to round 1, every tester was lacking the understanding of how pricing is presented. With the traditional eCommerce design of having the selectable options presented horizontally, the pricings don’t show until selected. After switching to a vertical format, new user testers did not question the pricing, unlike the first testers.
Testers thoroughly enjoyed the core feature of being able to know the product information as quick research before purchasing. However, the frequent critique from both testing sessions commented on how I could refine the sustainability ratings better.

EVALUATION TASKS

Add a product of interest from landing page to the wishlist.
Find the details about the item’s make of materials, longevity, and sustainability rating.
Reserve 61+ toothbrushes in the cart.
Search for another product.
DM a dropshipping inquiry to the makers of the that other product of interest for dropshipping inquiry.
Purchase everything that is already in the cart.

SESSION 2: Tested 2nd Iteration

Prototype 2

Final Testing Results from Round 2

Task Analysis

TASK 1: TESTERS ADD PRODUCT OF INTEREST FROM THE LANDING PAGE TO THEIR WISHLIST.

With the product listed on the first page of the prototype, the landing page, testers didn’t have to put in much effort to find the product listed within the “POPULAR” grid. From accessing the product page from there, it was digitally intuitive for the tester to tap the heart icon as an action to “favourite”, “bookmark”, or “add to wishlist”, in order to view the product again in the future without having to make a purchasing decision so early.

TASK 2: TESTERS WANT TO FIND OUT THE DETAILS OF THE ITEM OF INTEREST

On the product page, the tester taps the information icon to reach an informative card. This was an easy task as a “i” in the circle is symbolized to be “additional information”.

TASK 3: TESTERS IS INTERESTED IN THE ITEM AND WANTS TO STOCK 100 OF THEM UP IN THEIR CART

This was where the challenge came, where adding in a quantity more than 60 does not inform the tester the cost of their custom input quantity. This was immediately fixed and became a no-brainer and a nice-to-have feature, observed from the second round of testing.

TASK 4: TESTERS WANTS TO FIND A CANVAS TOTE AS A OPTION FOR DROPSHIPPING

Going through the prototype was pretty straightforward, but when it came to the main attraction of the app, comparing the traits that made an item sustainable or not, that was not clear. The only spot for the details to be clearly found was the product information card. With this gauge of judgement being the main attraction, the list of search results was the next best place to compare the qualities of a single item. This update can be found in the second prototype, as the result of the first user testing. It is an appreciated featuring during the second testing; however, as part of the next steps, it does require an improvement in how it is presented and which further information can be shown.

TASK 5: TESTERS WANTS TO INQUIRE WHETHER THE PRODUCT’S SELLER CAN EXECUTE DROPSHIPPING

This was a straightforward action through and through. With a call-to-action listed in the product page to contact the seller, the testers were able to directly message their seller.

Impact Matrix

Applying to the Final Iteration

The feedback from the second session about the experience, interface, and interaction was positive and straightforward; however, much is needed for optimization in how further information is presented. Both usability testings were vital steps to assist in understanding how users interact with this digital hybrid of B2B and B2C marketplace product.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON FOR THE THIRD ITERATION

With the core task being the journey to end up on the product’s information card, as it is this platform’s selling point to solve the greenwashing disparity, the rating system should be more refined.

In addition, the variety and different products—i.e, sellers, and the most sustainable items—can be featured; and it is important for the landing page to have an identifier that would lead the user to their account activity where they can view their payment method, shipping information, bookmarked items, messages, and other historical artifacts.

Concluding with Iteration 3

Where the iteration after the first session was created using the observations from the struggles gathered, this iteration was designed according to the fact that the users tested did not notice or comment on. Specifically, the features that were there for a functional shopping experience, but they didn’t notice as part of their task flow, i.e. scrolling down the product page to view similar options to compare to; and for some features that they couldn’t yet access as they did not think about it, i.e. accessing messages, wishlist, account, cart, etc.

CURRENT STATE/CURRENT CHALLENGES/NEXT STEPS

Having gone through 3 iterations in total, the current state of the bulk shopping app has drastically improved with nuanced changes. The grandest change was the navigation, where from the first and second iterations lacked the necessity and testing of reaching the user’s activity history, as it was not part of the task flow.. Going forward, in addition to implementing the look and mood of the app, the next steps that I would love to take is to expand on what defines each of the 5 sustainability levels that are shown for the buyer to make their own consumption decisions. The challenge is to figure out how to present all the information used to judge, whether it is to straight up break it down on the information card with why it is at the certain level out of five, or to allow the user the liberty to further investigate on their own by giving them the option to read into what is used to gauge this sustainability rating.

FINAL ITERATION

Prototype 3