Cartier WeChat Mini Program Research
Usability study for Cartier’s online boutique
Role: UX Researcher
Time: Jun. 2021
Research Method: Evaluate UXR, Remote Usability Testing
Research Type: Evaluation Research, Behavioral + Attitudinal Research
What makes an online shopping experience more pleasing?
As someone who is obsessed with online shopping, I would say that clear product information, easy navigation process, and great aftersales service are what make me become a loyal customer. In this project, I conducted comprehensive useability testing, in-depth interviews, and came up with suggestions on how to optimize the Cartier WeChat mini program for online shopping, which aims as attracting potential customers who don’t have access to an offline location and serve as a guide to the brand at the same time.
Define The Problem
When making an important purchase decision, customers want to learn about the brand ahead of time. Oftentimes, they will look up information on the brand’s social media or website. When the navigation process is prolix and overloaded with information, customers usually get confused and lose their patience easily. My team needs to figure out why a disconnect exists between the users and the brand.
The Cartier WeChat Mini Program fails to attract and retain users who do not have convenient access to an offline store.
Process Overview
Research
After the consultation with our client, we decided to narrow down the scope and focus on the two most-used functions: “Gift Advisor” and “Cartier Creation”.
To better understand the app, I went through the app and explore each feature. By the end, I was able to generate a diagram for the applet’s user flow. This provided support for the team to identify users’ tasks and interview questions later. Through competitive analysis, we found that most applets provide texts along with icons for better explanations. Some applets provide customer service channels that allow users to have live chats with customer representatives. Furthermore, these types of applets tend to present customizing experience which gives product suggestions based on the user’s preference.
Methods
To understand how users make decisions and eliminate the confusions they might encounter during the process, we designed three tasks and observe them navigate through the applet.
We chose the five-second test since we want to see whether the existing design is communicating the intended messages effectively. The main function of the applet is to provide an online boutique for the users. Therefore, users need to identify where they can shop even with a glance. The first click test access the efficacy of the content hierarchy. Since multiple similar-looking blocks are making up the homepage content, we want to find out whether the users can easily distinguish them. Lastly, the question test allows us to follow up with problems we encounter during the observation of a full shopping process on the applet.
Follow by the three tasks, I conducted further interviews with my users to gain more insight into what the users think about when they navigate through products that leads to their purchase decisions. Together, we collected data from 12 users. To better analyze our findings, we built an affinity diagram and sort the feedback based on the 10 usability heuristics.
My team also evaluates visual contrast using the AAA testing methodology to increase accessibility for various user types.
Research Findings
From the analysis, we found that the existing design reveals problems that fall into 8 out of 10 usability heuristics. Among those, we found that the most prominent issues of the existing design are its visibility of system status, user control and freedom, flexibility and efficiency of use.
Five Second Test
First Click Test
Question Test
Research Impact
From our research findings, we presented suggestions based on each problem we defined from our observations. Here is our report in detail if you want to look over it 😊
We received positive feedback from our client. The Cartier design team took a month to release their iteration of the Mini Program. Numerous serious problems were corrected, particularly in the CTA Buttons on the gift filter confirmation page.
Priority map
My Takeaways
This was my first project that cooperates with a real client, but my overall experience was great. It helped me realize how important the processes of asking smart questions and communication are. I have always had an interest in fashion and design, and I am glad to apply UXR skills to this project. There are limitations to this project. The client was located in China, but my whole team was based in the states. The time difference made it difficult to get timely feedback from our client. Therefore, we need to move on with our own decisions without them acting upon our findings (thankfully, they are all great decisions!). Our project deadline was also relatively short for the work we did, but we also manage the time wisely.
p.s. The client was satisfied with our project, and thus, I ended up getting another opportunity, which was to design a 3D virtual try-on application for them.