I firstly did research to discover the main design problem of where on the site do our customers have problems and why? My data sources included but were not limited to survery, heat maps, and Google Analytics. Also, as a new user of the online store UI, I used the 10 heuristics defined by Jakob Nielsen to evaluate the site usability.
Usability testing with customers is useful but not always practical to every business. To get as much feedback from our customers as possible, I talked to our customer representatives by asking what questions our customers were asking repeatedly and what UI features or information they had the most trouble with.
From the research we learned about our customers' demographics, needs, goals, and pain points. We defined the current customer profile and the potential customer profile. Also, we discovered two major design problems within our current online store:
- The majority of our customers are searching for a particular piece of information. They had a hard time quickly finding the desired product and store information (especially site deals, order status, and shipping policy) they needed from our online store. "Where do I find XYZ?"
- Customers were suspicious of placing orders with a small business such as ours. "Are you a real store? Can I trust you?"
We reorganized the site information architecture so customers could quickly locate the product and store information they needed.
Secondly, we provided clear business information and policy to build the trust customers needed to purchase from us. Also, we highlighted the SSL certificates to inform customers that their online transactions would be safe with us.
Lastly, we started to build a long term relationship with customers via newsletter, customer reviews, and social media.
