Design Audit

Being a Shopify redesign and development project, we had to take into account the limitations and roadblocks we would face during this low code platform design assignment. The next step, before we proceeded to the stakeholder interviews, was to perform a heuristic evaluation. This was to avoid any bias seeping in when understanding the system, and to have an objective opinion of its usability. This was followed by multiple stakeholder interviews, and product audits performed parallelly with competition analysis. The last stage was to synthesize our findings, prepare a report and present it to the client. In this report, we also shared the potential issues we would face during this low code platform design and how we planned to fix those. We concluded the audit understanding what would be needed to make this Shopify redesign more user-friendly and conversion-centric.

Narrative

In modern eCommerce website design, the homepage is no longer the only entry point for new users. So, we decided to use the homepage to build a narrative to introduce users to the brand.What helped us in creating an efficient narrative was understanding the business and its owners.

This, paired with introducing important CTAs throughout the narrative, helped guide the user’s journey.We also used improved pictures and iconography to present the brand in a fresh and minimal aesthetic.

The header, footer, and search

As part of the homepage revamp, we also redesigned the header and footer sections. The new header had an improved search function that would be an important navigational tool for users.

Additionally, we also introduced an information strip above the header. The purpose of this strip was to show current, relevant and important information – sales, festive offers, delivery delays etc. It would be visible at all times, showing beneficial information to users.

Improved category navigation

Given the nature of the client’s business, there were a lot of categories available for users to narrow down their purchase choices. We improvised the category navigation on the left panel so users can easily switch between categories.

Product category and description

One of the most undervalued sections on the product list page is the section mentioning the product’s category and description. It serves as an important anchoring point for users and also hosts important links to learn more about certain product categories.For example, the manufacturing processes or quality standards etc.

Product listing

The most obvious improvement that we made was the product lists on the listing page. We added unique elements like Out of Stock indicators, Pre-order indicators, SKUs and tags that are not widely seen across eCommerce stores.

It was important to add SKUs because certain users might want to use SKUs to search for physical distributor catalogs for certain products.

The ability to show product variants in the thumbnail

Some products have configurable parts but it is generally difficult to access, change and compare them. The visual selector/switcher that we designed would let the users easily switch between the different available options with minimum delay.

This was a challenge to implement owing to the close ended nature and technical constraints Shopify has . However, our experienced developers were able to fix this with their expertise in Shopify development and minimize the delay.

Briefer description section

With most eCommerce stores, a lot of product details are hidden under the “Read more” dropdown. However this information is key when users are trying to make a purchase decision.

The ability to show product variants in the thumbnail

With our redesign, it was important to us that users could keep looking at the information at the top of the page while parallelly diving deeper into more detail if they wanted to.

Widget access to FAQ and customer support

As far as expensive purchases are concerned, most people prefer having all the needed information about a product or talking to a human first.

We address this by introducing a widget to quickly access product information or talk to customer support.

Easier access to shipping and warranty details

Most eCommerce websites reveal the shipping and warranty details only after a long scroll down the page. This often acts as a bottleneck in establishing transparency and gaining trust of the user.

To make this eCommerce store more user-friendly, we made these details easily accessible at the right point in the user journey.

Klarna Insurance Widget

The insurance widget active on the site was functional, but not very useful. Our audit revealed that buyers of products priced on the higher side may want to investigate financing options.

With this information, we designed the page to provide answers sequentially to questions already on the user’s mind.

Sticky Product Header

Because of the detailed information available on eCommerce websites, the pages can sometimes be a bit lengthy. We wanted the users to see the product’s price alongside the CTA to Add to Cart.

To solve this, we designed a sticky product header that would follow the user as they scrolled down the page.