Overview

Penzeys Spices is a spices retailer in the United States. The company is headquartered in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. They are looking for ways to increase the usability of their e-commerce website.

Role

• UX/UI designer

• Solo concept project

• Timeline: 2 Weeks

Challenge

When I checked the Penzeys website, it has different varieties of spices available in various sizes but it was hard to locate items because of the navigation issues of the website. My goal was to update the existing e-commerce website by improving navigation and making it intuitive and user friendly.

Competitive Analysis

I did the Competitive and comparative analysis to understand the different features offered by the competition. I chose other e-commerce spice websites as competitors and for the comparator I chose Godiva chocolates because they sell something unique like spices.

The features that can be considered to improve the usability of Penzeys e-commerce website are the following

• Product ratings & reviews

• Filter items by category

• Autofill search bar

• Wishlists/ favorites 

• Online chat

Website Audit

I did the website audit (Heuristic Evaluation) to understand the performance of the website and to discover the usability problems.

User Interviews

I created an online survey to find users who purchase spices and I interviewed 5 of them. My goal was to understand users behaviors and  attitudes towards buying spices and to discover their frustrations.

Key Takeaways

• Trust and quality are most important

• Interested in trying new recipes

• Likes to have quick checkout options

• Values reviews and suggestions

• Frustrated with search issues

• Loves to experiment new cuisines and needs detailed descriptions

Usability Testing

I asked the users to perform certain tasks in the existing website to understand their approach in finding an item and going through the checkout process.

Find what this website sells ->Select an item -> Add to cart -> Checkout

Key Insights

• Confused with the context of the website

• Frustrated with the navigation of the website

• Annoyed with unrelated content

Affinity Mapping

I did affinity mapping to synthesize my user interviews and I was able to get the themes/trends like current behaviors, likes, frustrations and expectations.

Persona

Based on the user interview synthesis, I developed a persona as a representation of the target users

Problem Statement

Annie needs a reliable source and a workable, quick way to buy spices so that she can get good quality products for her needs

Open Card Sort

This website has a lot of inventory and with the current navigation, it is not easy to get to a particular product. I created a list of products from the e-commerce website and asked users to sort them into groups and name their own categories. After synthesizing the card sort, I was able to identify 9 categories which provided the insights for my top level navigation.

Site Map

Based on my research and card sort analysis, I created a site map with 7 different top level navigation. It was still difficult to place certain items like cinnamon because it can be looked as an essential spice as well as a baking spice, so I decided to go with a mega menu and include all the spices, herbs, blends and baking spices.

User Flow

I created an user flow to demonstrate the steps taken by Annie to buy a spice.

Wireframes

I sketched my ideas and transformed them to wireframes to provide

• Intuitive navigation

• Multiple ways to select a spice

• Detailed product display page with the information about spice origin

• Seamless checkout process

Solution

Usability Testing

Goal: users should be able to navigate between screens and successfully go till order confirmation page

Summary

• 5 /5 users were able to accomplish the task 

• 5/5 users were able to navigate between screens 

• Users felt the process was intuitive and 100% success rate

Prototype

Next Steps

• Creating more user flows and testing them to increase the usability of the website

• Creating an user flow through recipes , so that users will have access to buy the spices which were used in a particular recipe