Now as you know, me and my team met Mr & Mrs Trottinette about 2 weeks ago at one of the events they organise. They own a toy shop in the Crouch End area, and we discussed a new project they had for us.
Clients Challenge
“Through an improved e-commerce website, we want to showcase our products while maintaining our brand image: “small shop” appeal and great customer service.”
I want you all to think about Mr Tumbles. Friendly, Wacky & a Big kid. That’s Mr Trotts vibe all over. But there’s more to him…
A great community figure, and he is loud and proud of it. I saw him in action, and I must say he knows how to look after his customers.
However, when it comes to Tech, he is still a growing seed, but he his eager to develop an online presence.
Research
So we all know the drill from here, the team carried out a screener survey with 71 respondents. We then narrowed it down to the target market and carried out 7 longer surveys and finally we interviewed 3 people.
As you can see we aimed to discover likes and dislikes of in-store vs online, user attitudes, emotions and reasons for buying. Now this list is not exhaustive but summarises some the most common insights. We found people preferred the convenience and speed of on-line and the assurance and ability to touch and feel in-store.
When it comes to feelings I will let Ted talk you through it
“I love watching their face light up, that is worth more than anything to me”
From the Research, we created Ted. And In my head he said.
“I used to go to my local Toy store to buy presents before I had my first child, but since then I have become so busy! Not only with my little ones but my job keeps me really busy too.
On the weekends, I love spending time with the family; we go to all kind of wonderful wacky places and it’s my favourite thing to do. Period!
As my little ones have grown into cheeky little ladies, I’m surprised how clever they have become. They’ve learnt how to give “subtle” hints to what they want when their birthday or Christmas is coming. This actually makes life easier for me.
However, whether I get them the toys they want or spend fun times with them;
I love watching their face light up, that is worth more than anything to me. ”
Problem Statement
Ted needs a way to buy toys which has the speed & convenience of online with the assurance & entertainment of the in-store experience, because it will increase the chance of finding the right toy to put a smile on his little munchkins faces.
Comparative/Feature Analysis
Big Commercial Companies the Mr Trottinette doesn’t want to be like, But it works well.
Big Commercial Companies the Mr Trottinette doesn’t want to be like, But it works well.
Well first we wanted to see How the others attempt to do it, if they do it or what they don’t do, We did this with a comparative & feature analysis
comparing commercial companies like Amazon & Argos with themed “small feel” toy stores like Etsy, Kidly, Melissa & Doug. This slide shows a few of the features and systems we found worked well
Card Sorting
Once we got our product list from mr trott we started the card sorting excercise.
We first analysed how the competitors do it, we found that big companies with a wide range of products had many different categories, while the specialist “small feel” ones where much more refined.
In addition we got 6 users to sort the toys we were unsure of via optimalsort using a semi closed cards method
We then decided to also include a child development section as we found from our research that users desired it.
It formed a key part of the Gift finder feature which would be the perfect platform for Mr Trott to integrate his USP customer service to the website
Concept
Now we were ready to Create
The key feature would be the gift finder, giving it a more personal in-store feel. Something Informative, friendly and assuring was what we needed to achieve.
Other concepts was to make the aesthetics feel like you are in a crazy wonderland.
Prototype
Testing
Deliverables
- A proposed navigational and organisational scheme based on your research (card sorting).
- An interactive high-fidelity prototype for a desktop website.
- A statement on how you iterated your design in response to user feedback.
- Documentation including research, greyscale wireframes, and any other material you produced.
Must
- Have multiple clear ways of locating specific products.
- Include a product description page.
- Have an efficient way of purchasing one or more products.
- Steer customers toward popular products.
- Allow customers to contact the business.
Should
- Allow customers to browse products related to their current selection.
- Allow customers to read and write reviews of a product.
- Provide information about the store.
- Allow customers to shop by major brands.
- Allow for multiple images per product.
- Allow customers to connect with their neighbours through a very simple forum.
Testing Key Feedback
Task: Use the Gift finder to find Ted’s girl an arty jewellery toy. She’s 7 years old and keep the cost under £20
- 3 Users all clicked on the menu buttons instead of scrolling down to the gift guide on the home page.
- Managed to find the Arts & Craft page through the menu buttons
- Too much text, which they didn’t read
- Layout very formal, not fun enough
- Very dull
- Titles too small
- liked big buttons
- Cart and payment they found quite intuitive
- Want more detailed delivery times
- Cart and payment they found quite intuitive
- “I wouldn’t use special child”
- Button at the end of the gift guide is too small
Whats Next
- Second iteration of the website to implement user testers comments.
- Add interactive animations to make it fun.
Once we had our mid-fi prototype. we tested it with 3 users by giving them a task to use the gift finder to find a toy for teds daughter.
However everything that could go wrong, went wrong. But I didnt want the team to feel down about this. it a itterative process and I would rather get it wrong now than later.
On the up side the feedback was great! so we used this to create a second hi-fi version.
If we have enough time I can quickly take you through them.