UX Challenge :
Redesign an e-commerce website leveraging AR technology
As a part of a UX Design Challenge organized by IterateUX, we worked in a team of four (remotely distributed) to collaborate in solving the given design problem.
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This case study represents a re-design of a major e-commerce apparel shopping mobile app, SHEIN and incorporates AR technology to enhance user experience.
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We were one of the 4 top scorers out of the 27 teams.
Duration :
1 month
My Role :
User Research | User Persona | Journey Mapping | Ideation | Wireframing | Prototyping
Prototype :
Tools :
Figma | Figjam | Miro | Notion | Qualtrics | Google Docs | Maze
Problem Statement
​Shopping for apparel online can be time-consuming and frustrating to users, especially if the user experience on a particular website or mobile app does not meet their needs.
Goal
To offer a solution where an e-commerce app can leverage AR technology to enhance the user experience and enable them to make a better purchase decision.
Home Page Re-design
EXISTING VERSION
RE-DESIGN
AR Trial Room
Scope of Work
We had 4 weeks to come up with design solutions in order to make an existing e-commerce experience more efficient and useful for the users. We chalked out a plan and the scope of work for timely deliverables and streamlined documentation.
Week 01 - Research
To begin with our design problem, we had to pick an E-commerce brand to redesign its website/app and enhance the user experience by leveraging AR technology.
We started out by evaluating some of the big apparel e-commerce brands. We kept our focus on the USA market for the purpose of this challenge.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We set out to do a competitive analysis using an audit matrix, highlighting the pros and cons of each brand. While doing so, we could shortlist brands like UNIQLO, SHEIN and ZARA that had gaps in their current offerings and could benefit from AR technology to enhance the user experience.
After an internal discussion within the team, most of us found more scope in redesigning for SHEIN.
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Next, we did a SWOT Analysis for SHEIN to understand the brand further, which would further give us insights into its weakness and look at opportunities.
Based on further discussion, we proceeded to finalize redesigning the SHEIN app.
USER RESEARCH - RECRUITMENT AND PROCESS
Now, with a fair understanding of Shein’s competitive space, we turned towards the users.
We set out to understand the pain points and find gaps in the current Shein shopping experience.
Target audience: We targeted users between the ages of 25 to 55, who shop for apparel online in the USA.
We planned and conducted User Interviews with 5 participants (1 male and 4 female), whom we were able to identify with a Qualtrics survey. Out of these 5, we conducted 1 moderated user interview and 4 unmoderated interviews.
We crafted a research script to guide our interviews and focus and go deeper to identify pain points -
We also studied reviews on App Store and PlayStore that would give us more insights into the user’s current experience with SHEIN.
Some of them are attached here.
The main takeaways from these reviews were:
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1.) The sizing guide of the apparel wasn’t always helpful
2.) The quality of the fabric can be a hit or a miss for that price point
3.) Delivery and returns were not up to the mark
4.) Inexpensive and trendy collections is why most users prefer Shein
Key Findings and Obervations from User Research
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Users spend a lot of time browsing for preferred apparel
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They shop online for the convenience of not going to a store
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Doesn’t like to get into returns. Thinks it is a tedious process
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Feels bombarded with promotions
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They are anxious about the delivery since they are not sure if what they ordered is going to fit well
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Finds it hard to trust the quality and fitting
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They feel overwhelmed with so many options
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Loves Shein for its budget-friendly and trendy collection
Responses from User Interviews
Week 02 - Define
We had about a week in this phase to synthesize all of our results from the user interviews and create artifacts that would help thee team proceed further.
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With all the information from our research, we moved on to identifying and defining the key pain points to address.
AFFINITY MAP
We took notes from our user interviews and affinity-mapped them on FigJam to locate patterns and areas of significance.
We uncovered some commonalities in the current SHEIN experience.
Based on our research insights, we scoped down our focus on defining our User Personas.
A well-defined persona will help us keep our focus on the user and understand exactly what is needed for a better, seamless experience.
To identify the gaps in Kristin's current shopping experience on SHEIN and to empathize more deeply with her, we mapped out a User Journey Map with some key steps in her online buying process.
Major Pain Points
Having to go through endless reviews to check fitting
Cluttered user interface including homepage and product page.
Making returns in SHEIN is a tedious process
Too many options that are redundant in various places.
Week 03 - Ideate
Moving on to our third week, we began exploring potential solutions for the identified pain points.
With a clear set of pain points identified in the Define Phase, we decided to focus on offering Two key solutions.
USER FLOW - AR TRIAL ROOM
In order to start designing the AR trial room, we began with creating User Flows that would give us a better understanding of the UX architecture we aim to design.
The user flows for the AR Trial room were divided into two -
FOR A FIRST TIME USER
FOR A RETURNING USER
LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
After finalising the user flow, we moved on to designing low-fidelity wireframes to bring our proposed solutions onto the screen and to quickly review it within the team.
This helped us refine and make changes quickly with our mentor’s feedback.
Week 04 - Prototype
HOME PAGE
We wanted to keep the Home Page clutter-free, clean and make it more comfortable for the user to browse and navigate on the app.
Hick's law suggests that increasing the number of choices increases the time it takes to make a decision.
SETTING UP THE FITTING ROOM
Next Steps
For the scope of this UX Challenge, we could not perform Usability Testing, but that would be our natural next phase. The feedback we receive from usability testing will inform additional design iterations.
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As the next step, we also intend to have a call-to-action button under each product that lets the user add that particular product to the fitting room (on the bottom nav bar) and thereby try on more than one apparel/product at once virtually, more so to create a complete look before deciding to buy.