Determine the preferred customer experience after registering for an account on a purchasing website.
PROJECT SCOPE
Clients: Executive leadership; eCommerce department; Marketing department
Timeframe: 1 week
Role: UX Researcher
Methods: Desirability study
Tools: UserTesting
Project Overview
BACKGROUND
The eCommerce company wants to redesign the experience for customers who have just signed up for an account. Upon registration, customers must wait for their account to be activated before they are able to sign in, which has been identified as an opportunity to provide customers with information to occupy their time while they wait.
Two designs were created by the Marketing department: A page with more detailed account information and a modal with brief success messaging.
The eCommerce and Marketing departments want to quickly identify which experience (page vs. modal) is closest to registrant expectations.
OBJECTIVES
Which prototype (page or modal) best meets user expectations?
Are participants recognizing that, upon registration, they must wait for their account to be activated before they can sign in?
Methodology
Desirability Study
Note: Research was conducted on both desktop and mobile, but only desktop will be highlighted in this case study.
Desirability Study
METHODOLOGY
Participants: 12 business-to-business customers who have registered with a purchasing company in the past six months.
Test Design: To reduce bias, the participants were split into two groups: Six were shown the page and six were shown the modal. Every participant followed the same test plan.
Desirability Study: Method was chosen due to it's quick ability to identify user preferences. Since we already understood the functionality of the design, the team was seeking answers on which route was the most visually appealing and engaging.
ANALYSIS PROCESS
Participant interactions were both audio and video recorded, and I utilized a rainbow spreadsheet to identify patterns and themes.
Key Findings
The modal prototype was quickly closed by some participants, leading to lost information.
SAMPLE SUPPORT
Modal Prototype Moderate Issue – Some participants closed the modal without reading the message.
One customer vocalized that they assume their account is created and that they can immediately sign in.
One customer vocalized that they assume they have been automatically signed in.
The page prototype provided more opportunities to keep customers engaged while waiting for their account to be created.
SAMPLE SUPPORT
Page Prototype Success – Participants identified tasks they could complete to fill the time while waiting for their account to be created: Shopping and researching account benefits.
Page Prototype Minor Opportunity – Section information could be more relevant.
Participants mentioned wanting to learn more about the account benefits, which is currently unavailable on the page.
Recommendations
Show customers an informative onboarding page after registering.
Keep the "Products" section from the page prototype, which was pointed out by participants as being an easy way to "pick up where [they] left off."
Consider adding (or replacing the noted sections with) more information about account benefits and how-to's.