“ I was expecting more from the Coca-Cola online store when I visited the website, regarding design aesthetics and experiences. The experience was underwhelming. The website feels dated and did not reflect the Coca-Cola brand’s promises."
user testing comment - In-person testing interview
COCA-COLA INT'L ONLINE STORE
PART 01 - USABILITY TESTING
Client
COCA-COLA INT'L ONLINE STORE WEBSITE
Project
Online Shopping Experiences - Usability Testing
My Role
Usability Evaluation - User Research - In person Moderated and Unmoderated User Testing - Solution Recommendations
Duration
01 week
Methods - Tools
User Interviews - Heuristic Evaluation - User Research - User Testing - Insights Analysis - Information Architect
Deliverables
Internal Review with a Testing Plan - Heuristics Evaluation - Proto Personas - User Testing - WDAC Web Audit for Accessibility
Overview
The Coca-Cola International store website allows people to purchase licensed apparel products, collectible items, accessories, and home goods worldwide. Since COVID, shopping online is one of the most significant revenue sectors for the Retail - Licensing group.
The goals are to elevate the consumer shopping experience, and the website reflects the Coca-Cola brand values.
My task was to research and recommend solutions to the digital team to improve the Coca-Cola store website’s usability, gain more traffic and elevate shopping experiences.
To accomplish these tasks, I focused on finding solutions to boost the online shopping experiences for users, improve the information architecture (IA) of the website, elevate the connection between consumers and brand, and recommended adding better services or eliminating ineffective existing services.
My process
Research
User Testing
Key Insights
Recommendations
Next Steps
200
81 k
employee in 2020
Who will buy Coca-Cola products
94%
People in the world recognize
Coca-Cola ‘s red and white logo
Research
Using Nielsen’s heuristic evaluation, I began the research process to understand what resonated with our consumers, what works well, and what doesn’t work on the current running website.
Insights
These evaluations’ main takeaways are the urgent need to improve the site’s UI aesthetics and add the inspired content, brand messages, and product stories. That will inspire, engage and connect the brand to consumers when they shop online. The overall IA system is too basic, leading to the consumers’ feeling of unorganized product content management.
Proto - Personas
I want to better understanding what engages, inspire and elevate the shopping experiences when people visits the Coca-Cola store website by empathizing with the types of consumers who know and love the brand.
Focusing on few scenario personas that reflect on target consumers like the Coke brand collector who is always on the hunt for a new item, the fun mom who likes cute stuff for her family and friends from her beloved brand. The Brand's fan proud of Coca-Cola and wants to share that feeling with her community. Finally, the Coca-Cola employee from Japan wants to buy a fabulous designer collaborative product.
Examining these Proto-personas highlighted consumer’s pain points and expectations. For example, Chantelle went to the Coca-Cola store online and found the Unity Collection, the products are a bit pricey, but she thinks they are fun as a present for her new neighbor who just moved next to her from Lisbon, but she didn’t buy the t-shirt because she doesn’t know what those graphics meaning besides looking fun. She wants to share a good gift story.
User
Testing
With the results from the heuristic evaluations, understanding pain points, and frustrations from personas, my goals are to validate consumer expectations and discover what solutions will elevate the shopping experience on the Coca-Cola online store.
I asked users a few questions when they were testing the website.
These questions purposefully investigate consumers’ expectations when shopping online.
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What do you think about the Call to actions messages? Are they resonate with you? If not, why? Same with Yes answer. Your ideas on how to improve them?
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Do you know we have sustainability products that are very environmentally friendly? Do you find the product descriptions helpful or well informed about the product? If not, what will you think we need to provide?
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How do you like about the design color theme? Images styles? How do you feel when shopping on the site?
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What feature on the website do you think we should improve 1st thing?
The tasks that I asked the user to do
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You need to buy 2 T-shirts (1 Male size XL, something fun for summer, one girl t-shirt size M in red with sustainable material ) and a delightful color cup as fun gifts for your friends or family members, then see how much it cost in your country currency.
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Try to return and get a refund for the recent 5 cups that you bought.
I conducted 12 user tests with - 02 in-person testings - 02 moderated and
08 unmoderated, in two languages English and Vietnamese.
What I learned.
The results of usability testing show that users found the products on the website are interesting. Still, the product’s presentations and shopping experiences did not convey high-end or reflecting Brand’s promises. Specifically, 88% of my testers found that they were disappointed when they viewed the picture on the product detail page. They saw only one photo, and for some of them, the presentation was underwhelming. The descriptions are even more confusing. Users don’t understand all that strange codes and what those codes mean to their shopping experiences.
Another theme I discovered was that 80% of users found that the site errors and elements functions miss-steps are silly and too obvious.
“ What are the flag icon functions? I picked my country flag, and nothing happens, ah! It switches the currency !! That’s all, but all the text is still English.....”
Existing website, annotated
Key Insights
I conducted Affinity mapping sections andBrainstorm sections with all the data gathered from research and testing. Some highlight insights that we found.
UI
The online store design aesthetic, picture styles are the 1st impression to the users. Although we positioned our products as Mid-Highend tier, the look and feel of the overall online store didn’t reflect that level on the current running website. On top of that, the users think the website experiences didn’t convey The Coca-Cola brand promises.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
All information, details, and functions need to focus on people’s needs, elevate their journey, and reward the experience. Unfortunately, the existing website details and languages confuse consumers’ experiences. Therefore, the basic interactive system as currently set up may harm shopping experiences.
LEGITIMACY
The website’s services should be updates and manage to reflect a global Brand present.
The current product presentations could negatively impact consumer trust and confidence in the Coca-Cola store products.
Experience
Measurement
to be here
WE ARE HERE
we are here
WE WANT
WE THOUGHT
WE FOUND
Recommended
Updates
UI updates
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Rethink colors theme that can convey Happiness and optimism.
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Rethink landing page layout and priority the Call to Action message.
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Eliminate the genders’ categories button on the landing page.
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Rethink product descriptions and information - what information will encourage people to purchase the product - focus on consumer’s needs.
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Add interactive and videos to the landing page with motions and sounds that will elevate the shopping experiences.
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Add Highlights seasonal, unique product stories with beautiful photography and meaningful Call to Action. ( Brand values + products spotlights) for example, share the story about sustainability and the impact on the community, society?
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Add special offers and suggesting product features. These features will create opportunities for people who new to the online store.
Information Architect
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Reorganize the product category ( cards sorting )
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Update “ search” functions provide better results.
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“Sort by” feature - rethink the dropdown list - for example, sort by colors, sizes, type of materials, etc. The feature function should focus on user’s behavior when they search for a specific product.
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Global Help Center - Languages options use the translate tool on this page.
Legitimacy
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Rethink the Online services, add on the languages as needed ( Inclusiveness behavior )
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Highlight the products that sale on the site,
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The redirecting message to the US’s site should be dominant on the landing page.
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Rethink the consistency of the product pictures
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All these notes are the 1st step of elevating and gain back the trust from consumers when they visit the website.
Next steps
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Working with the digital team to develop and find the solutions to elevating the online shopping experiences for consumers.
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Working with the Creative team to rethink and creating the UI of the website.
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Team up with the Marketing team to reshape the brand messages and call to action to build a stronger connection with consumers.
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Rapidly creating new layout solutions for the Landing page of the website.