A guerrilla usability test on Enjoei app
Improving an app for the sharing economy.
Enjoei is a Brazilian collaborative e-commerce and it has many offers, mainly used products more focused on clothes.
These past days I wanted to buy new pants and I decided to use their app. I knew I could find many options at a good price, but when I started navigating I had some difficulties. So as a customer and a UX/UI designer student looking for a challenge, I decided to figure out if other users were having similar problems and see if there was anything I could do to improve the user experience.
*Note that I’m not employed by Enjoei. I’m a student looking for a challenge to practice.
Goals
- Identify if other users were having similar difficulties as I did;
- See if there was anything I could do to improve the user experience;
- Put in practice what I’m learning of UX and UI design.
Test Parameters
- What: Enjoei IOS app
- Who: Potential users, such as people that buy products online and smartphone users.
- Where: Cultural Center in São Paulo
- Why: To validate the issues I had while navigating through Enjoei’s app
Test tasks
- Filter search results
- Contact the seller
- Save a product
- Find the saved product
I phrased the tasks in open-ended questions:
- T1: You only have R$50,00 to buy a coat for you. What do you do?
- T2: You see a coat you might like, but you’re not sure about something on it. How would you clarify your question?
- T3: You really like the coat but want to leave it to buy another time. How would you do that?
- T4: You just opened the app and want to find the coat that you liked. Where would you find it?
I tested 5 users that I approached in the Cultural Center of São Paulo and also some friends, 2 of the 5 users had already used the app only as sellers. The focused scope of the study allowed me to iterate through the design cycle with a small sample size.
Empathise with users
Based on my assumptions, I used Job Stories to explore situations, associated motivations and desired outcomes of users.
Analysis
I reviewed the user interviews and usability tests and wrote down each pain point. I grouped the issues into four categories:
After gathering users feedback, I decided to tackle all the pain points. I assumed they would be both important to the users, such as for the company in conversion rate.
Since it’s a Brazilian app, I decided to translate the main screens from Portuguese to English to further understanding:
Key Issues
Pain Point #1: How to save a product
Users couldn’t find the right way to save a product and end up clicking in another button related to a shopping cart (little bag button) from that specific seller.
“Add to the little bag!” — User excited thinking she found a way to save the product.
Other issues:
- It’s not clear for the first time user what the “Sacolinha” means. Sacolinha is an option available in some seller’s store. You can buy more than one product from the same seller, paying only one shipping. Some sellers don't offer this button because they only have one item to sell. One user got confused when realized that a product had this button and another didn’t. They thought this was the “cart” to save all the products and them go to ‘check out’.
Pain Point #2: Users didn’t know where were the saved product
People assumed that they have saved the item for later. When questioned on the scenario 4, to find the saved item they didn’t know where it was and couldn’t complete the task.
“I don’t know where is my little bag” — User disappointed she didn’t find the button for the little bag items.
4 out of 5 didn’t know where was the saved items and clicked on “Sacolinha” button.
Pain Point #3: How to contact the seller
Although only 2 out of 5 users had problems contacting the seller, I believed that a small adjustment on the icon could improve usability.
After the user clicked on the button he said: “I wasn’t sure what this smiling face button was for, I thought maybe it was a like button or to talk.”
Pain Point #4: How to filter search results
The filter button only appears after the users start searching for a specific product.
“I’m trying to find something that limits the price.”
Prototype
I analyzed users’ behavior and patterns related to the previous tasks in order to come up with solutions.
UI Sketching
Sketching was a great way to organize my thoughts and brainstorm the ideas. I came up with some potential ideas that could be possible solutions to the pain points.
I wrote down some options and then narrowed down my top solutions based on peer feedback.
Hi-Fi Mockups
After sketching I felt ready to create a hi-fi version of a few of my proposed solutions. I edited the images on PS.
Here’s a side-by-side look at the changes I made to resolve the pain points related to contacting the seller and save the product for later.
Even though the app tries to have a funny and informal communication with their customers, the creativity on the icons didn’t bring a good user experience as I could see on my previous tests. I decided to redesign and bring back some universal icons on the talk to the seller and save the item for later button. Also, I changed the name of the little bag button adding the word “buy” trying to clarify that the button is to buy, not to save.
Here is the solution I came up for the pain points related to trying to filter the product and find the item saved for later:
On the usability test, I could observe that most users were searching directly from the search bar, instead of going on the search menu. So I decided to change the home button for the search button and add a saved button, linking to a screen with the saved products.
For a next iteration I'd blend the category-specific filters from the previous search screen and bring it to the home screen. In this first cycle I decided to skip this change and keep the home screen as it is.
Validation
Using the screens I edited on Photoshop I built a prototype on Canvasflip. This way I was able to share a link with the tasks and run the test online and also use it in person. I could record the screen and have the user workflow in both tests (online and in person).
I validated my design solutions with 6 users, 4 of them I approached at the Cultural Center of São Paulo, and the other 2 were online users. For the online test, I shared a link on the forum of the IDF where I’m taking the UI and UX course.
Through testing, I could see that one of my redesigns weren’t performing as intended. The filter button on the search screen wasn’t the main interaction the user would go first, instead they clicked on the search bar then decided to use the filter button (or not).
For ‘saving the product’ there was still some friction, 3 out of 6 users clicked on the “I want” button, similar to the shopping cart with the intention to save it for later. With my tweak on the name of the “little bag" button, no one clicked there thinking it was to save the product.
Also, the users could successfully identify the function of the ‘contact the seller’ and they could immediately find the ‘saved product’ button on the menu.
Successful Rate by Task
Takeaways
By doing this case study, I was able to:
- Identify if other users were having similar problems as I did;
- Improve the user success rate in 160%, from 35% to 91%: in general, by doing some small changes on the icons and on the name of the ‘little bag’ button;
- Overcome my personal challenge of applying what I’m learning on UX and UI for the first time in a real case study.
There would be more to improve on my study, such as a new iteration for the struggle on the save for later button. But I believe with this initial cycle I was able to learn some lessons and bring it to other case studies.
More about my challenges:
I decided to change the field I was working previously for 6 years (video editing) and switch to this amazing UX and UI design world. I’m learning everything at home on the Interaction Foundation Design platform, and also reading articles and books. This case study was my first time putting everything I’m learning in practice, with real users and real prototype. My husband is actually a (great) product manager and he’s supporting me in this new journey, by encouraging me, sharing his knowledge and also being patient to answer all my questions.
Since I came from a different field, I’m learning not only the tools involved in the UI field (i.e. Sketch, Invision, Canvasflip) but also design principles related to the user experience.
I’m glad to have this opportunity of changing career and I’m eager for more challenges.
Summary of what I’ve learned for the next project:
- With less than $5 it’s possible to prize the users for the tests (I bought a bonbon instead of a coffee and they seemed very glad!)
- To add more metrics on the usability tests to measure the UX related to their perception not only their interaction, such as a three-question post-task survey — ease of use, satisfaction, and “perceived” amount of time; also usefulness;
- Create a more clear task for the study;
- Create better criteria for participant screener.
Thank's for reading!
I got hired by this company and could run an A/B test for the "save for later" button. I've written about it here:
