Product Type
E-commerce site
Contribution
UX audit, user research, UX strategy
Goal
The goal of this project was to improve the user experience of the client's e-commerce website, Village Craft and Candle, which sold candle making supplies. I was asked to perform a comprehensive UX audit and make recommendations to improve the user experience. The client had just acquired the business and wanted to take it to a new level.
Approach
I conducted a thorough competitor analysis and audited the client's website. The most apparent issue was with the information architecture and filtering in the navigation menu. Once I had a thorough understanding of the gaps of the site, I created two different typeform surveys, one targeting newer customers and another for loyal customers. I also conducted user interviews with two members of the marketing team who managed the content of the site to understand their pain points.
× Filters for specific product categories were placed in products that they weren't relevant to, forcing a user to sift through redundant information and confusing customers who are new to the hobby.
✓ Filters should be relevant to the product a user is searching within.
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× Fragrance filters are products, rather than qualities that apply across a broad range of products. This simply duplicates the list of products on the page and doesn’t offer any additional navigation support.
✓ Filters should represent qualities that apply to a multiple products on a page and support a user to focus on a smaller quantity of products.
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× Products were placed on pages where they logically didn't belong, causing confusing and making product more difficult to find.
✓ Products should live on pages that they fall into categorically.
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× A lack of page naming convention made navigation confusing. The Supplies category in the navigation linked to a page titled Candle Molds and Accessories, which contains a random selection of wick related products, but no molds or accessories. Additionally, breadcrumb trails appeared at random on some pages but not others.
✓ Page titles should match the copy in the link the user used to arrive there, product should relate to the page title and breadcrumb trails should match the journey the user took to get there.
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× Products within the same category had qualities applied at different page levels. For example, Element jars had colour included in their title, while Lux jars did not and instead had a colour filter on the product detail page. This makes it possible for a user to miss the product they want and can cause cognitive overwhelm.
✓ Products with varieties such as size or colour should be specified on the broadest product page, rather than creating exponential individual product pages for every possible combination of qualities. Products should be named and sorted following the same methods.
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× These 12 different categories under wick all linked to one of 5 pages. Additionally, once on the pages, the titles didn't match the menu link, and some included educational information in the page title itself. When menu name doesn’t match the page name it makes navigation difficult and is not SEO friendly.
✓ While providing multiple avenues to a product can be helpful, page titles should match their nav titles. Product qualities should be listed slightly further down a page rather than in a page title.
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× Search bars don’t specify what they are searching within. Eg, FAQ, Product, Blog posts.
✓ The user should be able to easily tell what a search bar is intended to be used for.
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× Breadcrumb trails only appear on some pages, they disappear once user gets to a specific product page.
✓ Breadcrumb trails should remain consistent throughout and accurately reflect the path the user took to get there.
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× On mobile, 3rd level menu titles don't link to their pages, but instead all link to a page called Collections. Once on this page, the user has lost their spot in the nav menu and are forced to start over.
✓ Navigation should be optimized for mobile, follow the same function as the desktop nav and link to expected pages.
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× This product page says to click link to view a video, but there is no video at the link destination.
✓ Dead links should be removed to not falsely advertise resources that don't exist.
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× The Soy wax page says that no product on that page can be used for molded candles, however the FAQ page says Votive & Pillar Soy Wax can be used for molded candles.
✓ Information should be consistent in order to gain trust and credibility.
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× In this resource, three types of soy wax are compared, but there are nine types of soy wax available on the website. Six out of nine types of soy wax are left out of the comparison.
✓ Resources should accurately reflect the available product on the website.
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× These are all examples of what information looks like on product pages for waxes. Some are much more detailed than others and the layouts vary, making it hard for a user to know where find the details they are seeking.
✓ Product pages should follow conventions for product information so a user learns where to access it every time.
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× Product imagery is inconsistent, which compromises a sense of brand and professionalism.
✓ There should be photo guidelines that create a strong sense of brand and make it easy to compare products.
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Outcome
The result was a redesigned navigation and filtering strategy, along with other recommendations for merchandising the site's home page and improving brand strength. The sub categories in the navigation menu are also filters within their larger product categories, which creates consistency in how products are referred to and searched. If a user selects "soy" from within the main navigation, they are taken to the All Wax page, but with the soy filter applied, and filters can be further adjusted from there. This also reduces the overall number of pages on the website, which was desirable for this client.
These recommendations were taken and applied by Village Craft and Candle's in house marketing and design team in 2023.
