Photobox: Selection & Discovery

The Research

Building upon our in-house library of findings, a combination of external research and some customer insights, we triangulated multiple research streams to  gain the most complete understanding of best practice vs common practice vs user need:

• Audit of best practices - Carried out by Andy Turner
  • Large scale usability studies (275,000+ studies)
  • Across 256 Top grossing eCommerce sites
  • Updated and re-checked monthly
  • Creating a 'go-to' cross-section of journey touch points

• Competitor Analysis - Carried out by Andy Turner
  • Top competitors in the UK and Europe.
  • Curated specifically for style and market share.

• Internal research review - Carried out by Researcher
  • Product decision order (Jobs to be Done)
  • 33 Journey (pre-qualifed) pain points
  • 21+ studies and initiatives reviewed

• Moderated Usability Studies - Carried out by Andy Turner & Researcher
  • 9 x 60 min (UK, FR, DE, NL, ES): customers, non-customers, mobile & desktop
  • Building on our knowledge with a focus on competitor review and co-creating the ideal product selection experience
  • Prototype testing

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The Solution

The resulting discovery aligned the design concept  around 5 hi-level problem spaces, each encompassing multiple usability and desirability issues that had followed the Storio platforms for many years:

1. The double selection problem
2. The Jargon / choice problem
3. The Start Point problem
4. The 'Pogo-stick' behavior problem
5. The "no-one scrolls" problem

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1. The double selection problem

Problem: Users are forced to go through several stages of selection for a reletivly simple product:

• Select a photo book 'size' on a list page
• Select a photo book 'size' on a product page
• Select from a pop-up for a 'blank' or 'theme'
• Select a photo book 'theme' on a list page
• Select a photo book 'theme' on a product page
• Go to the editor process.

All of this adds up to give the overall impression that users must select the product twice from two very large lists.

With regard to photo book sizes, users are likely to be overwhelmed if product variations are depicted as separate list items and could abandon if unable to find suitable variations.

Separate list items make it hard to assess the breadth of the product range and increase the time spent scrolling to find unique products.

Variations of unwanted products clutter the list and is exacerbated at mobile.

Similar variations may be mistaken as the same product, leading to confusion or the need to visit multiple product pages.

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Solution: Combine backend architecture and front end touch points, into a single understandable flow more consistant with a classic e-commerce store (Jacobs Law).

"Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know."

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Supporting research:

• E-commerce Best Practice Audit & Jacob's Law
• Internal Research
• Simple Product Selection User testing

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Success metric:

• Editor Open (CTR)
• Theme engagement (time on task)
• Satisfaction (SEQ: avg 6 of 7)

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Goals Solved for:

1. Align two photo book selection journeys with conflicting options.

2. Reducing cognitive load and overwhelm for customers.

3. Make it simpler, quicker and easier for them to get through to the editor step with confidence.

4. Help customers easily locate the products they’re looking for by redesigning navigation and product taxonomy.

5. Optimise for usability at mobile (largest dropout rate).

6. Increase conversion rates.

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2. The Jargon / choice problem

Problem: Available to talk through in person.

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3. The Start Point problem

Problem: Available to talk through in person.

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4. The 'Pogo-stick' behavior problem

Problem: Available to talk through in person.

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5. The "no-one scrolls" problem

Problem: Available to talk through in person.

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Solutions Breakdown and tie-back to Research

Triangulating and referencing 4 sources of research, resulted in 38 viable solutions within the concept:

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Opportunity sizing and Prioritisation

Making a radical shift in approach to solve for so many customer issues, required getting buy-in and aligning stakeholders across 6 departments in data-led workshops.

When picking strategic targets and creating the roadmap, we ensured clarity around the size and commercial impact of the work to define what should be an initiative, BAU or follow-up feature discovery.