Himalayan Handmades is a retail e-commerce store based in Nepal that provides products such as clothing, bags, jewelry, and items for ritual practices. Customers can purchase spiritual items through their website. Himalayan Handmades was losing traffic to their e-commerce website. This challenge led me to find a way to improve the website. I wanted to gain the trust of potential customers as well as increase their sales.
The goal was to ensure that the user can navigate through the website easily and find products quickly. This case shows you some of the design process, if you would like to learn more I am happy to chat.
One of the research methods used for this project was card sorting. This method was used to better understand a trend on how customers would group items together and I considered this a crucial step in understanding customers thought patterns. I had 3 participants go through a card sorting exercise. I had the participants put familiar products in groups, then they titled those groups.
What I learned:
- Participants grouped clothing and accessories items together within their own groups.
- They had trouble grouping ritual items like singing bowls and dreamcatchers.
These insights helped me to see what type of global navigation was appropriate for the e-commerce site I was redesigning.
I started with just a low-fidelity wireframe to test the functionality of the website navigation. I created a low-fidelity prototype and had several users test it. During this process, I had the users complete tasks without interruption including purchasing a singing bowl. I asked reflection questions to get a better understanding of how the users felt about the steps it took to purchase a product.
Insights from participants:
"It would be nice for the user to have a popup notification on the side for cart information"
"As a new user, I might not know the difference between accessories and ritual items"
So, in the final stages of this project, I was able to test my design with several participants. I wanted the users to share how they felt going through the website global navigation. Did it feel trustworthy? Was it easy to purchase an item? Was finding an item difficult? With this insight, I was able to push for further iterations.
-100% of users called it "Welcoming and inviting"
-50% of users said it was "Organized"
-100% of users said it was "Intuitive and easy to navigate"
I made changes to the categories names within the global navigation bar. I made color changes to the website. I created a functional pop-up cart screen for the product page.
1. Always record your interviews.
It's really difficult to get really detailed information from the notes. There was great information that I missed and couldn't get back at the moment. I feel that I would have benefited from knowing all the information if I had something to go back to.
2. Plan ahead.
I had a huge time constraint of 2 weeks. I did not prepare accordingly. I found that it is really important to be organized and prepare for your project before you start. I could have avoided the stress if I had planned ahead of time.
3. Time management is your friend.
This one I had to learn the hard way. The stress of getting something done in a timely fashion is huge without time management. When something unexpected happened I wasn't really focused on the design anymore but more on getting it done. Never again.
4. You can go back and improve.
It's really easy to get hung up on the small details and miss the overall picture. With this project, I overthought a lot of my decision and didn't allow ideas to flow naturally. In my mind, it was the end-all-be-all, but that is not true. There is always room for improvement and I will continue to go back and improve on my designs as I learn more.