Date of Project:
October 2017
Role: User Researcher, Information Architect
Methods Used: Tree Test, Moderated Card Sort, Unmoderated Remote Card Sort
Deliverables: Research Report and Presentation for Leadership
About The Project
Vera Bradley has expanded their product offerings from Travel Bags to include home goods. The challenge lay in determining how to categorize these new products in a way that users could easily find them.
Goals
Gain understanding of how users categorize our products and where they would look for certain items.
Determine differences in how products are categorized internally vs. how the user thinks they should be categorized.
Learn how current & potential users would organize and categorize new Home goods products (bedding, wine glasses, plates, pillows, etc.) prior to adding them to the website, to increase findability.
Test the Information Architecture of Vera Bradley’s current Navigation and recommend necessary Navigation updates.
My Role
As the UX Researcher, I conducted benchmarking research, analyzed Voice of Customer data from multiple sources including Customer Service Representatives and Feedback surveys. I also conducted IA testing including Card Sorts and Tree Testing. From this research, I formed design recommendations and presented findings to leadership.
Methodology
Open Card Sort
To better understand how products are categorized internally, I conducted an Open Card Sort with individuals representing each department, including Finance, Marketing, IT, Merchandising, Product Design, Customer Service, Human Resources, and the CEO.
The same cards were used to conduct an unmoderated, remote Open Card Sort utilizing Optimal Workshop’s panel of recruits.
Results: Individuals from each department all categorized products in different ways, even after trying to put aside any job-related thinking.
Tree Testing
Next, I created a Tree Test utilizing the current navigation structure. In a Tree Test, participants are given items to find/ tasks to complete to track the paths they take to reach the items (or not).
Results:
Easy to decide where to find Backpacks, Wristlets, Patterns, Material
Difficult to decide where to find Bedding, Umbrella, Throw Blanket
Failure paths
This is an example of a PieTree, which shows the paths testers took to complete the task, including failure and successful paths.
Follow-up Testing
Combining the results of the first Tree Test, weekly search reports & Open Card Sorts, I proposed a new navigation, which added more Accessories subcategories and a “Home” category. To see how this new proposed navigation would perform, I created another Tree Test via Optimal Workshop.
Results: The addition of more “Accessories” subcategories and a “Home” category resulted in a 15% increase in success for finding Throw Blankets, a 39% increase in success finding Bedding which had low success rates in the previous Tree Test of the current navigation.
Outcome/ Impact
The Tree Tests and Card Sorts of the current navigation uncovered several findability issues. To address these issues, I proposed adding more subcategories to “Accessories” and creating a “Home” category.
As a result, “Accessories” didn’t need to be a “catch-all” for one-off products (pool floaties, drink koozies, etc.) and participants had a higher success rate of finding where these products lived.
In the end, the additional subcategories were not added to “Accessories” but the “Home” category can be seen on the site currently.