On last June 16, Wink Strategies got the opportunity to be part of the meet-up organized by its partner MTL+ecommerce, which took place at Fabrik8’s premises. The program for the night : A Design Sprint for eCommerce and questions on user experience (UX) reliability.
Since Wink Strategies encourages knowledge sharing, here are a few important points to remember from the conference!
THE DESIGN SPRINT FOR E-COMMERCE (BY ALEX NEMEROFF, DYNAMO)
A Design Sprint is, as its name suggests, an accelerated version of the creative process in web design. This working method was developed by Google Ventures UX experts and consists in solving within 5 days complex web design problems, such as the user experience optimization (UX) and the user interface (UI).
Intense but efficient, the Design Sprint allows a team to achieve in a couple of days the final result of a website that would take, usually, a month or more to be completed.
Here’s how it works :
Day 1 : Ideas unpacking
Understanding is the first day’s key word. What is the main objective? How are you going to complete the job that has been given to you?
At this stage, it is important to understand what is expected from your team. In order to do that, put all the important aspects of the future eCommerce website you have to build on the table and create a consumer map with on one side the profile of your target audience and on the other side, goals to reach. You will then have an overview of the orientation that your project needs to take.
Day 2 : The sketch
Once your ideas are clearly defined, you need to suggest and list innovative but also competitive solutions.
You can either create personas and check if you meet their expectations, or you can propose a website sketch (trial version) and ask the opinion of different person from your target audience. The point here is to get some feedback from users and identify the points that need to be improved before developing a real website prototype.
Day 3 : The decision
The third day is the hard decision-making day. Thanks to the sketch part’s results, you will be able to adjust your process and redirect its progression if needed. At this stage of the Design Sprint, your choices are decisive.
Once your creative goals are set, you can go to the next step, the one where you bring ideas to life: the prototyping.
Day 4 : The prototype
At this step, you need to create a prototype that can be tested but that does not need to be completed. For example, it is possible to create the whole website and all the pages that need to be there but you will not be able to click on any of the buttons.
Day 4 is an experimental step, you do not need to present something completed and many aspects still have to be improved.
Day 5 : The test
This is where your team needs to present a first sight of the operational website. If you only have templates and wireframes at this step, it is a bad sign!
You absolutely need to have a fully operational version of your website online that the user can explore. From this moment, the last changes will be minimal.
One of the most important aspects of a Design Sprint is the choice of the team you will work with. From the web designer to the developer and from the editor to the strategist, you definitely need to gather the right persons for the job. You only have one intensive week to solve more or less complex web design problems, so you need to have a solid, creative and especially a fast team.
USER EXPERIENCE IS DEAD (CORINNE LALONDE, M0851)
As e-commerce manager at M0851, Corinne Lalonde’s goal is to understand how and why a person visits her company website.
During her neuromarketing course (a mix between neuroscience methodology & marketing strategies), Corinne L. wanted to answer the following question: How does the brain of a user work when visiting a website?
To answer this question, and in the context of a research, different people were placed in front of a screen and had to go through two different websites.
The website n°1 had a UX optimized design and therefore met all the criteria to be perfectly user-friendly. While the website n°2 did not respect the standards of a good UX optimized design at all.
The results: Users liked website n°2 more than website n°1.
Why is that? There are three main facts that can explain this choice:
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The cognitive challenge
If the challenge is too easy for the users, they will be bored very quickly by the website they are visiting. The first website, which was user-friendly with a better browsing experience was “too easy” and too predictable for users to feel challenged or stimulated.
Users had no challenge from the Home page to the Product page. They were just looking around and passing through the website without interest.
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The cognitive style
There are different ways to learn and to assimilate information. Some people are more visual and retain and learn through images while others are more “analysts” and need to see numbers and other details deepen their memories. Corinne L. applies the same principles to redesigning M0851 e-commerce website .
The real meaning of Corinne’s presentation (“User experience is dead”) is that if one does not consider the diversity of cognitive style and if one does not challenge the user enough, an e-commerce website can totally miss its conversion goals.
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The brand DNA
Besides the cognitive style and the cognitive challenge, the brand DNA must be considered, which is your company’s identity and values. The brand DNA of M0851 is very strong since it is a Quebecer company with 30 years of history and known for offering high-quality products and flawless customer service.
Therefore, the new challenge is to create a store experience on the website! But how to create a real experience on a virtual platform?
It is in this sense that user experience is “dead”. There is not only one type of user experience, nor one way to improve visitors’ satisfaction.
As always, this meet-up organized by MTL+Ecommerce was rich and varied. This article only presents the main lines of this edition, nothing better than to attend the meet-up live!
Do you have any point to highlight which were not mentioned in the article? Your comments and suggestions are welcome!