A New Party at Diddams

Conceptional Client: Diddams Party & Toy Store

Launching a new E-commerce website for a 25-year-old family-owned business

Before

After

 

Team Members

Solo Project

Conceptional Client

Diddams Party and Toy Store

Time Frame

2-week sprint

Methods

C&C Analysis

Feature Inventory

Problem Statements

HMW’s User Flows

Interaction Design Brainstorm

Open Card Sort

Site Map / Navigation

Wireframing & Prototyping User testing

Hi-fidelity mockup

 

The Problem

Bringing the party online

Diddams has four brick-and-mortar locations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. With the onset of COVID in March of 2020, brick and mortar foot traffic can no longer be a source of reliable income; E-commerce is the new way of reaching their customers. We were tasked with using a pre-existing inventory list, utilizing a customer profile, and building an e-commerce experience.

User Persona

Donna the Deal Diver

For this project, we were given a user profile that would need to complete a certain task. While this is typically done with user interviews and research, this project focused more or design and iteration. For Donna, she wants to use a coupon to complete an order.

 

  • Comparison shops for the price

  • Seeks discounted shipping

  • Plans purchases in advance

  • Tries new things for the right price

  • Shops online alone

  • Avoids complicated descriptions

 

Competitive Analysis

I researched 4 competitors (3 online retailers, 1 local competitor) to get a better idea of what features competitors were offering to their customers and how we could offer savings to our users. The main takeaways being:

 

New customers have the opportunity to enter their email address for a coupon code to save $$

 

All sites allowed users to sort by price

 

Each site has a rating system and allowed users to leave comments for each item

 

Each site allows users to add items to their cart from the search screen to allow for an expedited shopping experience

Comparitive Analysis

In an comparative analysis, I wanted to look for businesses are offering features that elevate the user’s shopping experience

 

Simplified checkout process


 

User can easily open and close product information on PDP to see information as needed

 

Customer ratings and system suggestion of related products

 

C&C analyses were both important to understand what features users needed from their experience. I felt that all the companies I used for the analysis had features that helped the customer’s journey.

Card Sorting & Site Map

In preparation of the new e-commerce site launch, we were given an inventory list of 74 items that needed to be sorted and integrated into our new sites. I conducted 5 digital card sorting activities to see in which departments each item should sit. This will make it easier for users to find products through “discovery”. The results of the card sorted divided the inventory into 7 departments at the L3 level.

User Testing & Lo-Fi Improvements

  • All the testers had some confusion around category/department names

  • Additional pop-up after items are added to cart

  • Users want to be able to add to cart from search screen

 

Prototype walkthrough

Overall, I couldn’t be happier for with the Diddams Party & Toy Store redesign and the launch of their faux e-commerce site.

Next Steps:

I would want to continue developing other areas of the website that we saw in the C&C analysis (Shop by Color, Shop by Theme)

 
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