This case study discusses a micro-usability + user needs interviewing project I undertook for the second Coursera course of the University of Michigan's User Experience Research and Design specialization: Understanding User Needs.
[ T L ; D R ] In this project, I addressed what users of the Northland Nature Nest website found useful or frustrating when searching for a) specific information or b) products, and why.
THE CLIENT
Northland Nature Nest
A small, local shop that sold products relevant to backyard birds: bird food; bird feeders; birdhouses; pole systems; and so on. They did not sell items online, but they did maintain a database of their products online for perusal.
THE PROBLEM
As a small store, Northland Nature Nest’s website is, understandably, quite small.The collection of products shown on Northland Nature Nest’s website, however, is relatively large for such a small store. I posed the possibility that the current navigation features were not robust enough to make the searching process quick and easy. This was especially true of products that are more difficult to categorize.
Also, as there was no search bar, other information, such as the blog, store hours, etc. could potentially have been difficult to find.
Interviews: User Needs + Usability
In order to investigate these possibilities, I conducted two user needs interviews with a usability component in-person with users familiar with the Northland Nature Nest store website.
I used an affinity diagramming method to make sense of the results.
Affinity Diagram
Results
1. Failing Expectations
The first key issue found through interviews was that confusion arises when elements are not what or where the user expects.
Interviews showed that a number of key aspects of the site are difficult to discern, leading to frustration and confusion. For example, users found the hamburger menu icon for the mobile global navigation menu difficult to find. P01 scrolled around for quite a while before managing to find the hamburger menu.
Users also found the lack of a search engine on the main Featured Products page disconcerting. For example, while on the Featured Products page looking for a Carpenter Bee Trap, P02 said, “What I am thinking right now is that I’d be looking for a search engine.” It took over a minute for P02 to determine an alternative direction in which to look.
Recommendations
1. Make the hamburger menu icon more noticeable or eliminate it entirely and make the menu visible on mobile devices.
2. Add a search engine on the main Featured Products page.
Additionally, the interviews revealed that users expect information throughout the site to be more up-to-date, relevant, and complete. For example, the site requires more—or more inclusive—categories to allow users to more easily find less common items. P02 nearly gave up trying to find the Carpenter Bee Trap on the Featured Products page, because none of the categories made sense for it. P01 remarked upon the lack of navigation, category, or tag for locally-made products, despite the fact that Northland Nature Nest emphasizes their status as a small, local shop.
In general, information on individual product pages is not robust or relevant enough to meet user expectations. P02 remarked upon the paucity of product information on individual product pages. Among the efforts made, P02 looked at Related Products on the Ant Moat product page to find the Carpenter Bee Trap, but found nothing even remotely related.
Recommendations
1. Add a catch-all category, such as Miscellaneous, for items that don’t fall into the current categories.
2. Create a tag or category for locally-made products.
3. Add product descriptions to individual product pages.
4. Update the Related Products algorithm so that they show truly related products.
2. Efficiency
The second key issue determined by interview data is that users come to the site with a particular task in mind and try to accomplish that task as easily and efficiently as possible: the site should reflect that.
According to the interviews, global navigation is most commonly used, possibly because the other options are less salient. Participants intermittently made use of the side menu, but usually only as a last resort. P01 tried the tags “bees” to find the Carpenter Bee Trap, but only after exhausting every other option. Similarly, P02 tried using the “Miscellaneous” sidebar menu option to find the Carpenter Bee Trap, but only after trying many other options.
Participants used global navigation more than any other form of navigation. When looking for something less pricey, P02 went to the “On Sale” global navigation menu item. Also, P02 first went to the global “Contact Us” menu option to look for store hours.
Recommendations
1. Make the sidebar navigation more universal (i.e. display it on every product-related page) and more salient.
Users also tend to have a specific reason for visiting the site, and dislike anything that detours from that path. For example, users typically visit the site briefly, stay mostly on the Home Page, and look for updates, which they usually find straightforward. P01 spent five minutes on the site the last time she visited. P01 also recently (and usually) goes to the site to see updates and seasonal information.
Also, users dislike when links take them away from the site (e.g. to a new window or site). For example, P01 said, “I haven’t visited [the blog], because those kinds of things make me nervous.” P01 then went on to explain that they made her nervous because there is no indication as to whether or not the links might take her to another site.
Recommendations
1. Ensure that any links that lead to other sites are clearly labeled.
2. Update the look of the blog heading on the Home page to make it clear that it’s a part of the same website.
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Thank you!
