The following is a conceptual case study for a furniture website redesign.
Adobe XD
THE GOAL
Create an easy-to-use website for Madison to navigate as she redecorates and updates her home for a new stage of life. The website makes finding, buying, and having furniture delivered simple and quick.
GOALS AND TASKS
User Goals--
Redecorate and update the children's rooms and living room.
Decide what furniture to get.
Buy the furniture.
Have the furniture delivered to her home while being able to track it.
Be able to return or replace furniture easily.
User Tasks--
Gather inspiration and ideas.
Open the website.
Search the website by room or by furniture type.
Order and pay for the furniture
Track the package.
Accept delivery.
PROCESS Part 1 - This section takes a deep dive into understanding the user (Madison) by forming her story and documenting her journey and thus figuring out the website requirements.
Understanding the User
Madison is an accountant and mother in her mid-thirties with school-age children. Madison is an analytical person who has decided to redecorate parts of her home.
Madison’s children have finally gotten a little older and have stopped drawing on walls and furniture and don’t have as many toys as they used to. Madison has decided that she will redecorate their rooms as well as her living room. She can now invest in more expensive pieces of furniture without having to worry as much as she used to about the furniture being ruined.
Although Madison’s children are older, they are still school-age, and she is busy taking them from practices to play dates, so her time is precious. She also needs to be able to track deliveries and easily contact the furniture company if needed as she isn’t always home.
Madison is a tech-savvy woman who mostly shops online. She gathers inspiration from websites like Pinterest and Instagram. She likes having an overall image of a room in mind before she begins shopping for big-ticket items like furniture. Madison isn’t able to visualize everything in her mind, so she likes to see pictures of the actual furniture in a room setting before she buys it.
Madison’s priorities are:
To find furniture that she likes easily and efficiently.
To order and pay for the furniture quickly and easily.
To track her furniture and be home when it is delivered.
To be able to contact the company with any questions or complaints.
A quick and easy return or replace policy.
Madison’s pain points are:
Not being able to find what she is looking for on the website.
Not seeing pictures of the furniture in an inspirational room setting.
A long or complicated process for paying for or ordering furniture.
Not being able to contact customer service quickly or easily.
USER STORY
Understanding Madison’s story is helpful for understanding the context and motivations, and leads to desired outcomes.
“When shopping for furniture online, I want to be able to easily browse furniture by room or type. I love to see inspirational photos of room ideas, and to see the furniture I am buying in an inspirational room setting to help me imagine what the final room might look like.
“I don’t have a lot of extra time, so I want to be able to find inspiration and the furniture I want quickly, then order and pay for it easily. I would also appreciate multiple ways to contact customer service in case I have questions or if I decide to return or replace something.”
USER JOURNEY
The steps Madison takes before, during, and after her involvement with the website.
Madison decides to redecorate the living room and children’s rooms.
Madison decides to shop online for most of her furniture.
She gathers inspiration from websites like Pinterest and Instagram.
Madison opens up the furniture website and begins searching by room.
She searches the Living Room category and finds a couch and coffee table she likes.
Madison searches more couches and compares them to see if there is anything she likes better.
Madison searches more coffee tables to see if she likes anything better.
Madison adds the couch and coffee table to her cart.
Madison searches the Bedroom category for the children’s rooms.
She chooses two beds and two nightstands from the bedroom category.
Madison looks at other beds and nightstands to compare prices and to finalize her decision.
Madison adds two beds and two nightstands to the cart.
Madison remembers that she wants desks in the bedrooms. She doesn’t see them in the bedroom category.
Madison uses the search bar on the top of the site to find the desks, which are in the Home Office category.
Madison adds the two desks she likes best to the cart.
Madison reviews her cart and proceeds to check out.
She places her order.
Madison receives a confirmation number and an email that confirms her purchase.
A few days later, Madison receives an email that her order has shipped.
Madison uses the “Track Package” feature to keep track of her package so she can be at home when it arrives.
Days later when the shipment arrives, Madison sees that one desk is missing. She goes onto the website to find the contact information.
Madison decides to use the Live Chat feature to ask about her package. She uses her confirmation number.
Customer service responds quickly and confirms that the desk was delayed and will arrive the next day.
The desk arrives the next day.
Madison assembles the furniture and arranges it in the rooms.
Madison is pleased with her purchases and the service.
PROCESS Part 2 - This section states some of the assumptions, requirements and constraints made.
WEBSITE REQUIREMENTS
Based on Madison’s goals and needs, the website should be:
Reliable
Display accurate product data and availability.
Display correct delivery estimates.
Usable
Be organized and easy to navigate.
Be clean with no distractions.
Be easy to add to cart and check out.
ASSUMPTIONS
The following assumptions were made for this project:
Madison has her payment and delivery information on hand.
Madison has a location that the furniture can be delivered to.
The furniture company scans the products and gives them tracking numbers.
The furniture company has reliable customer service and can respond quickly.
The furniture company has the furniture in stock.
CONSTRAINTS
The following constraints were introduced for this project to allow for the focus of a particular goal:
The categories have been limited and exclude items such as decor and lighting.
USER FLOW
The following flow was designed to help articulate how Madison would move through the website and reach her goals:
Enter site.
Search by room or search by product.
Choose category.
Choose product.
Review.
Checkout.
PROCESS Part 3 - This section explores Wireframing and prototyping the user experience.
I began with sketching out my thoughts and ideas for the wireframes:
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
I then mapped out the information architecture for the website:
Some more sketches of the page layouts:
FINALIZED USER FLOW: WIREFRAMES (AdobeXD)
I settled on two main flows for the user.
The first one goes from room to checkout:
The second flow takes the user from the Products tab to checkout:
The Contact Us page shows that the user (Madison) would appreciate a variety of choices to contact the furniture company.
To get a sense for the flow and to test the experience, an interactive prototype was created in AdobeXD with the low-fidelity wireframes.
CONCLUSION
To refresh---
Madison’s priorities are:
To find furniture that she likes easily and efficiently.
To order and pay for the furniture quickly and easily.
To track her furniture and be home when it is delivered.
To be able to contact the company with any questions or complaints.
A quick and easy return or replace policy.
Madison’s pain points are:
Not being able to find what she is looking for on the website.
Not seeing pictures of the furniture in an inspirational room setting.
A long or complicated process for paying for or ordering furniture.
Not being able to contact customer service quickly or easily.
Two main flows were focused on for Madison: one flow took Madison from the room she had in mind (ex: Living Room) to the Sofas, then Sofa she liked best, then to her Bag and Checkout. The other flow began with Products, where Madison could have chosen Sofas, then the particular sofa, then her Bag and Checkout. Both flows ended in the same product, and the checkout process was quick and easy.
The website also makes sure to have Contact Us on each page, with various methods of contacting the company in case Madison has any problems or questions.
