Project Overview:
Amazon has emerged as one of the biggest user-oriented e-commerce platforms that ships to almost every place on Earth.The online shopping experience is pretty subjective and which is why we chose to explore how the user interacts with searching for a particular product and proceed to buy it. By investigating how Amazon can improve its usability and functionality, we can discover how to adjust the platform to suit the users' natural workflow.
Research Objective: To understand how convenient it is for Amazon users to search and find the products that they need.
Research questions:
- To determine if the users find it easy to find the products that they need on Amazon (web version)
- To understand how they use search filters and sorting feature to customize the search results and find what they need
- To understand if search filters and sorting features are optimal in helping the users achieve their goals
Personas
Based on 3 user interviews we set up a persona. We referred to it throughout the testing planning process.
Testing Environment
Method:
A remote unmoderated usability test was performed using Usability Testing software Loop 11, which enables participants to share and record their screens and follow the instructions on the page to complete the tasks. They will be using computers/laptops to take the tests.
Logistics:
Based on a screener, the team will choose four participants, represented in our persona. These participants will take part in the usability test at a location of their convenience, using their own personal laptops/computers.
Test Duration:
Tests were conducted over 2 days with each test taking approximately 15 minutes each.Consent: Participants will be informed that their data will not be shared with anyone other than the people involved in this study and the recordings will only be used for our research purposes and will be deleted soon as the study is completed.
Screening Questions:
Before launching the test, our team needed to set some eligibility criteria for participating in the test to recruit suitable people to participate in the test and exclude those who were not eligible. For example, we only wanted to recruit people who were over 18 years old, had some experience with online shopping, not too online shopping savvy. We created a screening worksheet and then designed a Screening Questionnaire based on our worksheet.
Task Scenarios
Based on the shortlisted tasks, we created scenarios that the users can read, understand and follow. The scenarios were as follows:
- Imagine you have to buy wireless headphones. Now find a way to look for your favourite pair and add it to your shopping cart.
- Now imagine you are a millionaire and want to buy the most expensive headphones, Search for the product, and add it to your cart.
- You now remember it was a dream and you are not rich. Find the highest-rated headphone at the lowest price possible and add it to your cart.
- You want to find discounted promotions and deals on headphones. Find a deal with at least 30% discount or above and add it to your cart.
Outcomes and Data Collection
Loop 11 Analysis
Key Insights
The usability test gave us some key insights into user behavior and the usability of the system.
- We found that the sort feature is not really visible as it is placed opposite to where all the other filters are. Although the participants were familiar with amazon, none of them had the idea to sort and apply a filter simultaneously to get better results.
- Most participants used the “rating filter” on the left panel even when not asked to, which suggest that sorting by rating was a natural behavior.
- The “sort by discount” was way below the list of filters on the left panel and thus most participants didn’t find it.
Based on our findings, all participants were quite confident in searching and finding items on Amazon as most of them were regular users of the site. However, we found that some features like the sort button were not very evident and too small and participants had to do multiple searches to find a somewhat satisfactory result/product. Currently, most users only look to the left panel to refine their search and miss the sort feature on the top right. Similarly, the discount filter is too low on the page, and participants missed using it. We also found that most participants opened multiple tabs to compare products along with reading reviews before choosing.
