Hound Society
Responsive website design
Background
Hound society is a new e-commerce start up selling high end leather dog collars. These collars are being handmade and designed in Argentina with high quality leather. These dog collars will be a treat for any type of dog and Hound Society wants to showcase this high standard through their website. With no website and no social presence just yet my role is to discover what users want and need from a dog collar site and what information users need when purchasing a collar.
Objectives
Define Hound Societys main users and discover their needs when purchasing that perfect collar online.
Role/Duration
UX/UI Designer, research, prototyping
2/3 weeks
Phase 1: Discovery
Research
User research for Hound Society began with surveys. Hound societies target audience for this survey were ideally people with dogs. The questions were based around when a user would buy a gift, are they conscious about how the collar looks on their dog and what kind of information they need before purchasing a new collar.
Secondary research was conducted through market research of the products and site already selling collars.
Surveys
Surveys were created through Google Forms. Users were asked a series of questions to gain a greater insight about who Hound Society’s target audience are and what information a customer needs when purchasing the perfect collar for their pet. From this survey I had 56 responses and some insights were:
39% (22 people) chose style when picking a collar, and 36% (20) chose quality
Other information people looked for was material, durability, size chart and comfort
80% (45) said reviews with images would influence their choice to purchase and 82% (46) said they would want to see images of different size/types of dogs in the collars
What information about the collar is most important to you?
“I want to make sure the collar is safe and comfortable, how it fits, how it attaches on a lead etc.”
Would reviews including images influence your choice to purchase?
“If I was purchasing a collar online then images would be needed”
Any other influences or tips you have to choosing the perfect collar?
“Size guide using common dog breeds, collar cleaning tips”
Customer Journey Map
This is a visual representation of the customer's journey from awareness to advocate. It is a good way to find opportunities to get in contact with the user and understand how and what the user is feeling through the process.
With this research I came up with some priority 1 feature opportunities for the Hound Society website. These features will be helpful for the business and the users.
Phase 2: Define
In this define phase, I learn more about the user by creating 2 user personas. These will be Hound Society main users. I also created a site map to define the information architecture of the site.
Personas
With the quantitative data I collected from the surveys, I defined 2 user personas who are Hound Societys main target audience. Sarah, new owner for Fred and Jake who owns Will. This is done to empathise further with the target audience and understand their needs and pain points.
Site Map
Branding
At the start of the project, I asked Hound Society if they had any colours or fonts they would like to use for the site. They confirmed the font they wanted and not the colour scheme. They mentioned they wanted to keep the site neutral colours. With this information I created a style guide for the site.
Once they had confirmed they were happy with this it was on to create the design.
Phase 3: Design
Low-fidelity frames
These low fidelity wireframes were created using Balsamiq. Keeping the information architecture in mind I was able to map out how the first iterations of the site would look.
Hi-fidelity frames
After some iteration from the lo-fi frames, these high-fidelity frames were created in Figma.
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Landing Page
Being an ecommerce site I wanted this page to have a clear hero image and CTA so the user knows they have made it to the right page. From the research, users wanted reviews and to know they were buying good quality therefore I wanted to showcase this on the landing page.
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Product Page
As Hound Society only has a limited amount of colours at the moment, I only added a size filter to this page. A colour filter will be added as more items are made.
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Product Page
When asked in the survey, 57% of users said they did not know how to measure their dog's collar. Being an online store, I felt it was important to describe how to measure the collars at this stage. This will benefit the user and the business. How to care and product description were also important items to include based on research.
Responsive Designs
Given that Hound Society is a new start up and I am contacting them only online, I thought it was best to design for desktop first. I felt it was the best way to show the full pages and all the content easily. Given the way users shop now, it's mostly always on mobile. Therefore it's very important to always design for mobile as well.
Next steps
Usability testing
Once the final project is finished my next steps would be usability testing with users to make sure the site flows perfectly and find any pain points users will have. After I explained how the next steps would go, Hound Society explained they would like to wait till they have all the images of their products ready to test them with users as well.
Once these images are ready we will start user testing with user in person and online using Maze.