The Book Cow

Improving the customer experience by enhancing customer control and logical user flow.

T Y P E

Concept project.

T E A M

Nobuto Nishizawa (Solo).

M E T H O D

Business analysis, heuristic evaluation, user flow, competitive analysis, sketching, user interviews, wireframing, prototyping and usability testing.

D U R A T I O N

2-week sprint (Dec 2021).

M Y R O L E

UX Designer.

T O O L S

Pen & paper, Figma, Whimsical, Airtable, Notion.

Summary

1. Where we started

The Book Cow is looking to improve their online store sales which currently makes up 30% of their total revenue. They hope to achieve this by targeting “Deal diver” archetypes customers.

2. Conducting research

Heuristic evaluation and user flow revealed some easy wins:

  • Combine two websites into one

  • Create relevant book categories

  • Give customers control

  • Create easier checkout

3. The problem

Purchasing a book online takes a long time due to the lack of search functions, uncommon categorisation and sign up requirements at checkout. There is an opportunity to make this process quicker and easier, thus improving customer satisfaction and sales.

4. Applying what we found

Based on the design hypothesis main pages of the website were sketched out for user feedback. Some key insights were to keep the site layout simple, highlight the loyalty program and simplify the checkout process.

5. My solution

The key recommendations for the website:

  • Combine the currently two separate websites into one

  • Give customers control by search filters and bread crumbs

  • Hierarchy of information to clearly communicate products

  • Simplify the checkout process by reducing unnecessary steps

6. Next steps

  • Think about how books should be categorised by looking at competitors and card sorting with potential users.

  • A deeper dive into the loyalty program, understand how it should be displayed and works.

  • A look at how this site might work as a responsive mobile site, consideration on how each section would be broken down.

 

Reflection

The world of eCommerce is immense and only grew faster as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic.

There seems to be an abundance of poorly designed checkout which neglects how a user may feel during their checkout process.

Understanding customers who all come with different needs and thought processes make UX design very interesting.