RYU Usability Testing
Overview
Just as RYU shoppers want to shop with confidence and with little frustration, we want them to experience the same flexibility and control when it comes to navigating and searching for a product or service with ease. The usability testing will allow us to determine the overall usability of the website, so they can search for anything within seconds.
I was the main designer leading this usability testing in Spring 2020. I conducted the site audit, created the prescreening questionnaire, and observed how the participant uses the site. I also worked with one other designer to ensure that we didn’t run into any technical difficulties.
The problem
Giving shoppers the ability to navigate the global navigation system and searching for products and services online meant making fundamental changes to the information architecture and the way the search engine was built since RYU started. Historically, the shopper should be able to glance at the nav system and know where to go and also type certain keywords to find the product they want.
Moving away from an accrued model to pave the way for faster search engines required a ground-up rethinking of the way tabs are organized and displayed on the website.
Goals
User: Search for products and services with ease
Business: Increase engagement and retention of shoppers
Product: Maintain the current structure of the site and make small adjustments
Having a search engine is crucial for any clothing website but it can also be complex. The most difficult part about designing this feature was addressing all potential error states and edge cases that can occur when searching for products. To maintain trust with shoppers and to ensure that they were searching with ease, we used concise copy and clear visuals to help them understand what was happening at each step and to guide them to resolve any errors.
Research
Determined to make the new and improved search bar and nav system work the way the shoppers want, we conducted four rounds of user testing with iterations based on feedback - and shoppers (participants) expertise proved crucial as we conducted this testing.
Reorganizing the information architecture and allowing the shoppers to search with ease can be more complex than it seems. With RYU, customers can click and browse the website to find what they are looking for, so reimagining the flow of the nav system and search bar may seem redundant. Because we want to give customers the power to search for a product and understand the nav system upon landing on the website we kept the visuals the same and provided recommendations below the search bar whenever the shopper types a certain keyword. However, we thought it was crucial for shoppers to first understand the nav system at a glance before having to resort to using the search bar to find the product.
Complex challenges like this were among several identified during the user research sessions, and validating this and other solutions before implementation was key to our short 4-week turnaround.
How it works
Global navigation system
Reorganizing the nav system was a hassle as we had to make sure the shoppers can locate what they want quickly. We made it easier for shoppers to understand the hierarchy of the nav system by categorizing the subcategories by the correct family allowing them to scan the nav system and click the right tab to locate what they are looking for.
Optimizing the search bar
In the previous search bar, shoppers could search for the product they are looking for but no recommendations were provided to them making it more difficult to use the search bar. So we focused on optimizing the search bar so that when the shoppers want to locate a certain product or service - recommendations will populate below the search bar in hopes that this is what the shopper is searching for.
Results
The feedback we received from participants was extremely positive, with many noting the convenience of searching for a product was much easier than before.
”The navigation system and the recommendations provided when using the search bar help me locate what I was looking for much easier.” - Participant #3
Beyond a boost in positive sentiment, the hypothetical success metrics would’ve seen an increase in retention and engagement from shoppers as a direct result of rolling out this feature.
(Disclaimer: This usability test was done in 2020 and since then the website has been redesigned.)
