BRIEF: Create an e-commerce website that will successfully translate the store brand online.
The Magic Toy Shop is a retailer of toys, games, and magic tricks, specializing in vintage and collectables. For over 30 years they have established their place within the community, now they want to keep up with time and bring their shop online.
Who is the Magic Toy Shop?
A shop with a story
A seller that specialises in TOYS, GAMES, MAGIC, VINTAGE, with authority and credential
Hand-picked curated selections with love
Toys with everyone, there is no gender lines, no pigeonholing.
Outcome: an Interactive prototype of the website.
Research
- User research
- Competitive analysis
- Persona and Scenarios
Information Architecture
- Card Sorting
- Sitemap
- Userflow
Wireframes and Prototype
- Lo-Fi sketching
- Interactive Prototype with Axure
- Usability testing
USER RESEARCH- what do they need? what do they want?
Interviews
- Interviewed 5 people, including young parents, grandparents, relatives buying gifts, and collectors.
- Browsing , curated content, and flexible filtering options are important
I found most people either have a very clear indication of what they have in mind, or they want to browse for inspiration. The ability to browse is very important. - Maintain the intimate brand- People said that they would go on toyshop sites for inspiration then buy it on bigger sites like eBay and Amazon for a cheaper price, so the biggest online competitors are not other toyshops but the general e-commerce sites. Therefore it is best to maintain the brand value of warm and intimacy.
- Product reviews are crucial- It is one of the main drivers for people's decision for the final purchase.
Contextual inquiries
Visited various toyshops to observe the interactions between customer and shopkeepers, to understand how to maintain the human touch on a digital platform.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS- seeking inspiration
I looked at three different kinds of sites for comparison. Competition wise, there is other toy commerce sites (small retailers, and major retailers including Target Kmart BigW etc.), and general shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay. I also looked at other e-commerce sites for inspiration, mostly home style and fashion sites considering they have a much more mature online market due to strong competition.
I mainly focused on
- Information architecture - categories
- Ways to shop- search functions, filter options, curated edits
- Checkout process
- Layout/aesthetics
Toy ecomm websites
Other eCOMM websites
general shopping sites
PERSONAS-understanding the audience and their journey
We were given three personas and their scenarios.
The main key points concluded from the personas are:
- Easy navigation
- Search function
- Different filtering options
- Streamlined checkout process
- Product reviews
CARD SORTING
I conducted both open and closed card sorts. I found while people have difficulties coming up with their own categories, they were quite comfortable with conventional category headings.
Physical card sorting
Online card sorting
Sitemapping
The sitemap conveys how the parts of the site fit together. It also provides insight into how a user would navigate through various pages of The Magic Toy Shop. This helped streamline the user flow.
SKETCHING AND IDEATION
Sketching was a great way to visualise my ideas, solicit feedback and iterate.
PROTOTYPING AND USABILITY TESTING
After getting feedback on my sketches, I developed a prototype in Axure, and conducted usability testing. The feedback was especially helpful with streamlining the checkout process. It was interesting to see different people approaching their given scenarios differently.
