Role: Interaction Designer / Visual Designer/ UX Research / Frontend Developer
Duration: Sept. 2021 - Nov. 2021
Changing the way we see product information.
Project Overview
Crimson Tech modernizes e-commerce tech with features that help consumers find the right product and get educated on technology.
The Problem
With current e-commerce tech sites, product information is either not detailed or not enough to make a good buying decision. Crimson Tech aims to fix this by bringing enhanced product information visible to users across their buying journey.
Understand the User
I needed to understand people's buying behavior to see how product information is utilized in their shopping journey. I decided to survey 20 participants and interviewed three people in my network that frequently shopped online for tech products.
For the survey, I asked questions specifically about product research and where exactly they get their information. During the interviews, I kept the questions open enough for participants to elaborate on their shopping journey.
Key Questions
(1) Who is our user?
(2) What is the users buying behavior?
(3) Where do users find good product information to help them make a buying decision?
(4) How can we make product information easy to understand for users?
Survey Results
60%
of respondents don't utilize product information from e-commerce sites.
75%
of respondents said that looking at the specifications of a product is very important to them.
60%
of respondents said that watching videos is their main source of getting product information.
Evaluating the Smartphone
I decided to understand a particular product the smartphone and see what features are important. What is the deciding factor in buying a new smartphone? Based on Statista, longer battery life is the most important feature from American smartphone owners. Which is slightly ahead of usability features, durability, storage, and camera quality. This data helps me understand what features are considered when deciding which smartphone to buy.
Meet the Users
Competitive Analysis
Now that I have background knowledge of customer buying behavior and notable factors in smartphone considerations. I looked at the existing competition to see what they are offering. I looked at five major e-commerce brands that sell specifically smartphones to see how well information is displayed.
Click on the link to view competitive analysis slides
View Slides
User Flow
I created a simple user flow where users first check out all smartphones and then participate in a search phone feature that would help them choose a phone based on their uses. The users then proceed to the product page. Here they view more information about the product.
Click on the image to enlarge
Starting the Design
Here I created sketches to layout the e-commerce design. I wanted to get a feel of the core features of the app before I move on to digital wireframes and prototypes.
Digital Wireframes
Key Features
Deep Search
Deep search is an intuitive AI-driven tool that finds the perfect smartphones based on personal utility and ties it to technical specifications for a personalized, improved user experience. Search questions are specifically chosen based on user input. Using an AI approach, results are accurately depicted so that users can make a good buying decision.
User Friendly Specifications
Instead of listing out important specifications of a product, I try to create a similar approach to Best Buy. A better-visualized specification that indicates if it's low-end or high-end and a brief description explaining why. Unlike, the competitor I displayed key features that consumers most likely would be interested in such as battery, processor, or display.
Product Videos
Product videos play a significant role in providing valuable information to customers. I thought of creating a video-sharing platform like Youtube for e-commerce. People can upload videos related to the product explaining key features and recommend items that pair well with the product. This platform is a unique opportunity for customers to get educated about the products, make confident buying decisions, and explore new products.
Prototype
Reflection
What I learned
This whole project was fun and challenging. I learned a lot about the consumer decision process through my research which helped me make user-centered designs. I learned new skills in Adobe XD which helped me quickly wireframe and prototype my work. Overall, I was passionate about this project from start to finish and especially loved how the design choices were based on the users.
Next Steps
I want to closely look into the features and see how it can be expanded. A video creator program for e-commerce tech is very interesting. How can we leverage the structure of a video sharing platform to inform customers about product information and promote product awareness? It is necessary to define the core principles to fully flesh out the idea of product videos and its impacts.
Also, in the AI search feature, we can get valuable analytical insights that can help design specific recommendations for users that help find products best suited for them.
