UX/UI Designer based in Brisbane
UX/UI Designer based in Brisbane
The challenge:
Broaden the client base of a local business by creating a responsive website and app.
Scope and focus:
Selling of large machinery parts for farming, tractor and harvester parts.
Background:
The owner of All Parts Direct has over 40 years experience in selling spare parts. He has gained his loyal customers by word of mouth over the years and he gives them the royal service with the best price and quickest turnaround. The parts are usually delivered by himself with some good banter to boot. The business is starting to plateaux as the only advertising he has is his van, business cards, merchandise (eg. hats) and his phone number in the white pages. He is hoping to bring new customers to the business by having an online presence.
My role:
Refresh the logo and company branding using similar colours. Build a responsive ecommerce website and app that makes it easy for All Part Direct customers to shop.
Competitive Analysis
This will give insights and help determine the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within the spare parts market. Also any weaknesses that can be exploited.
Ethnography Research
Passive observation of the client for a day. He is a professional and expert in his field but it can be difficult for him to explain all he does. Observing his everyday activities and human behaviours will be beneficial to the project.
1 on 1 interviews – Contextual Laddering
Interview with the owner to understand how the business is run and their pain points and day to day problems. Interview with a customer to see their common needs and pain points. Interview with a potential customer to see what they look for in spare parts service.
Research Goals
• Understand the process of how a customer buys a part? Can it be streamlined?
• Identify customer habits and preferences and what enhances the spare parts buying experience
• What makes other spare parts companies successful?
• What can cut down time in Enzo’s day?
• Discover the common needs, pain points, and human behaviours of the target audience
• Discover the common needs, pain points, and human behaviours of the business owner
• What makes other spare parts companies successful?
• What business plan would benefit the business?
• Getting the correct part the first time is a common user goal
• Fast delivery is a motivator
• Users are looking for value for money parts
• Knowledge of parts is important to customers
• Some competitor sites inefficient
• Users buy parts when they are distressed (something has broken down or blown up)
• Engines, Transmissions and Filters are popular parts
• Common problems are motor blows up or transmission blows up
• Good customer service is expected
• Ebay is a major competitor
• Supply can be an issue for All Parts Direct
Secondary Research
After looking into the industry of spare parts, especially for tractors, there are alot of competitors out there doing the same thing. There are several major brands eg. New Holland, John Deere, Bare Co etc. and there are websites you can order those parts through or you can go straight to the source for a premium price. There’s an extensive range of spare parts available on ebay for competitive prices. With ebay, you can’t talk to someone about the part you are buying so if you are getting something worth over $2000 for a harvester, you might want to chat about it before making the decision.
One thing that is relatively consistent is that many of the ecommerce sites selling spare parts are not visually appealing and have been created without the user experience in mind. This is one thing that can make All Parts Direct stand out from the crowd.
PAINS
• Can’t find the part or part isn’t made anymore
• People not knowing their parts
• Expensive machinery costs
• Ute broken down
• Can’t work on job until filter is replaced
GAINS
• Getting the correct part the first time
• Efficiency
• Good value for money parts
• Find new ways of running/improving the farm
The goals that overlap are:
• Variety of parts
• Positive shopping experience
• Build mutual trust
• Security of private information
• Simple, efficient checkout process
• Get the broken down vehicle up and running as quick as possible
After liaising with the client, and using information from secondary research and the competitor analysis, the All Parts Direct sitemap was mapped out. The user can search for a part number or browse by make. Reordering previous parts and having a subscription service are some of the useful features of the site.
Designs were first sketched on paper, then built into low-fidelity wireframes in Sketch keeping in mind the following opportunities:
● Design responsive website with clean interface and easy to find contact information and spare parts to shop.
● Have a login so users can reorder previous orders or parts.
● Fast shipping options (Courier, Air Freight, Local drop off and Australia Post)
● Filters for sorting and finding parts.
● Allow customers to track their purchases.
● Subscription Service - Allow customers to set up subscription of order to be delivered eg. monthly
● Rewards Program - Discounts for customers who join up to newsletter
● Paypal and Afterpay options
● Virtual Assistant
The user flow and task flows were created to visualise the path a user would take to complete a task. The user flow below maps out the path from entering the website homepage through to the order confirmation.
Based on research findings, the interface of the ecommerce site needed to be informative and legible, with plenty of white space. The main focus is on the products available to shop first and foremost. Although we can’t possibly have every single item available to purchase in the database, the products can be uploaded over time. It is clear on the site that not all the products are listed, so if you can’t see what you’re looking for, give Enzo a call. The logo shows a tractor tyre entwined in a moving arrow. It represents fast delivery of tractor/farm parts direct to the customer. The interface needed to be simple and streamlined, to create a hassle-free shopping experience with the least amount of clicks as possible.
The total number of participants that did the test were 3 people, 1 male, 2 females between the ages of 24 and 40. They have all shopped for spare parts before. The test was done individually on their desktops. I would send them the link and they would try to complete the tasks.
Task #1:
Purchase 1 Fuel Filter. Add the item to your cart and proceed to checkout until you get confirmation of your purchase.
Task #2:
Find contact information about the company by navigating to the ‘Contact’ page.
I got them to answer some key questions and once they had completed the tasks, I gave them a call to get some feedback about their experience. I lay them out in an affinity map to point the direction towards the next steps and final responsive website design.
Summary of feedback
1. All participants were able to complete the tasks. None of the participants had any major problems with getting the tasks done.
2. The participants seemed happy with their experience and the UI, the visuals of the overall website. Positive feedback for navigation and the look of the site.
3. 1 out of 3 participants had trouble finding the contact details on mobile only.
4. The Credit Card payment stage was missing from the mobile prototype.
5. One user suggested adding shipping options
6. One user suggested adding "log in" or "sign in" rather than the icons in the nav bar
7. Fix change in logo/nav bar positioning when skipping between pages on mobile version.
Low fidelity prototypes were made for desktop and mobile. High fidelity prototypes were created for desktop and mobile also using InVision. Once usability testing was completed, revisions were made to the prototypes.
https://celene880130.invisionapp.com/public/share/MWX1CF3QN
This was a difficult project as it wasn’t just about the User Experience and User Interface Design but also looking into how the local business ran as a whole. How the business could run smoother and use time more efficiently. Certain aspects of the website are designed to cut down phone time from the owner and hopefully they will have more time to deliver to new customers. The customers will have the opportunity to have their own account that they log into. Reordering parts is made easy and a subscription service should help boost sales. There is still alot of work to do as I plan on building the responsive ecommerce site in Webflow and creating an app from the mobile version.