AMIPI Inc. Diamonds

Improving Website Performance through Heuristic Evaluation for enhanced online shopping experience for users

Problem Statement

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In an era where online presence is paramount, jewelry seller face the challenge of balancing the demands of both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets.

Stake Holders

Amipi Inc.

My Role

UX designer, User Research, Information Architect

Project Timeline

3 months

To enhance the online store's user experience (UX) while preserving essential elements crucial for both B2B and B2C interactions.

My Process

Comprehensive UX Audit:

Conducted thorough competitive analysis to identify industry best practices and benchmarks.
Performed heuristic evaluation of the current website, documenting deficiencies and assigning severity scores.
Leveraged Google Analytics to gain insights into user behavior, preferences, and points of friction.

Stakeholder Collaboration:

Presented findings from the UX audit in a detailed report, facilitating informed decision-making.
Collaborated closely with stakeholders to prioritize recommendations aligned with business objectives and user needs.

Iterative Design Process:

Utilized insights from the audit to ideate and architect a revamped landing page and other website elements.
Facilitated a session to foster a design thinking mindset amongst owners, developers, and the marketing team.
Implemented iterative design processes to refine the user interface and optimize user journeys.

51%

Survey by TechCrunch

of users prefer using desktop software over web-based applications. The main reasons cited were better performance, more features, and greater control over data.

79%

Survey by Adobe

of users prefer using desktop software for creative tasks, such as graphic design or video editing. This is likely due to the greater processing power and storage capacity of desktop devices, which are essential for handling large and complex files.

found that the global market size of desktop applications is expected to reach $821 billion by 2024, indicating that there is still a significant demand for desktop software.

Another study by Statista

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Key Take Away

A desktop client may offer some advantages over a browser client, such as:

Performance
Security
Offline access

However, a desktop client may also have some disadvantages, such as:

Installation and updates
Compatibility and portability
Cost

Based on the statistical data from sources, it proves that a desktop client can help the students to complete task and achieve goals in efficient manner.

The survey consisted of 10 international students from Grad school and 5 National Student from undergrad school.
Interview process consisted of survey questionnaire and 15mins interview while using current website.

85%

Students who preferred desktop clients

prefer them for their streamlined and organized way of communication and collaboration

65%

Students who preferred desktop clients

prefer them for robust features for collaboration, such as real-time file sharing and editing, task management, and group chat.

In case of Pace University, student preferred a Desktop client as it offer greater control over data privacy and security compared to using multiple online platforms and tools.

Common Pain Points & Common words noticed in the survey

Difficulty navigating different online platforms and tools

Frustration with unclear instructions or expectations from professors on the website

Time-consuming to access necessary resources for classes

Limited resources for tracking student engagement and progress

Too many apps to keep a tab of homework and assignments

Competitive analysis was important to understand how a desktop client performs and what are the benefits and features that we can incorporate in the dedicated students desktop client. Workflows analysis was done for following products:

Interesting Features ( Pros ):

Filtering information is easy

Allows the user to pick from pre-made templates depending on the task.

Easily customizable
(Data, and UI looks)

Monthly Goals, Overview dashboard of important metrics at a glance

Provides enough help for users to understand/use functions

Task assignment/ delegation. Task management, Deadline and timeline setting

Uninteresting Features ( Cons ):

Visualizing a large list of projects

No option to opt out of new features

Too much overhead setting everything up for a short-term project like sprints

Because an app is so open-ended and customizable, it can be daunting since the user doesn't know where to begin.

Automation reduces some of the tasks for instant/prompt communication

Design Development

Design Insights

Consolidated and organized the design insights that I got from user research. Following were the broad categories of user pain points.

The next step was to plan out all the user activities that this app would accomplish. This also included the details of each user activity and features we would need to support those activities and also keeping in mind the existing user flow of the website, as we cannot take liberty to deviate from the user's mental model.

Design Development

Sketches

As can be seen below, the sketches were heavily inspired from the competitive analysis that was done on the exisitng apps in the market. This was done keeping in mind the user's mental model and the familiarity with the UI of these applications.

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Low fidelity Wireframes

The low fidelity mockup had few changes after user testing.

The Task bar idea was dropped as participants felt that it was too much task.
The Side bar was more optimized to increase the working real estate.
The floating widgets were more streamlined to keep the design & layout clean and minimal.
Incorporation of data visualization.
Easy plugins for 3rd party app plugins.

On Boarding Page

Home Page

Classes Page

On Boarding Page

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Style Guide

Final Product

Future Scopes

Up

Chat-Bot integration can help students in completing the work, and can also help to resolve queries with professor.
Integration of administrative options to connect with admin will make this desktop client a one stop solution.
Similar client for professors and teaching staff can be helpful and make the process streamlined.

Learnings

Efficient Project Management: Learned to streamline work and create sprint schedules for task completion.
Diverge and Converge Method: Utilized brainstorming and design process effectively, encouraging equal contribution from team members.
Importance of Pilot Testing: Realized the significance of conducting pilot tests before engaging with real participants, leading to improvements in user understanding.
Utilizing Design Systems: Employed design systems to maintain prototype uniformity, enhancing clarity and usability.
Scope and Scale Management: Managed a massive project involving comprehensive consideration of all aspects of an existing website, aiming to improve student experience.
Team Collaboration: Acknowledged the necessity of teamwork for successful project completion, leveraging acquired skills and knowledge effectively.