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RICK OWENS' WEB REDESIGN
OVERVIEW
Purpose
Context
Deliverables
Role
Shared responsibilities: Usability testing on the original website.
My responsibilities: Analysis, Individual report, UI redesign and testing.
Team of 6 UX Designers
Design Report, Prototype of redesign
Masters project • 7 weeks • 2021
Identify usability issues with the RickOwens’ website and redesign the website.
THE PROBLEM
Rick Owens is a globally renowned and exclusively modern gothic designer label. Its products are distinguished by a minimalist approach to colour and asymmetrical layering in a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic which leads a fashion for a few years. However, the brand’s web design is poor and users are unsatisfied with their online shopping experience.
USABILITY EVALUATION
User
Task
Identification
Retailers often offer dozens of features on their web pages to facilitate users’ shopping. We need to identify the top three features that are most important to users as Top Tasks.
A group of students did research on the most crucial tasks when visiting a clothing shopping website. Following a voting process, the results revealed a clear priority list of tasks.
The result shows the Top Tasks are image quality, search, and delivery, which account for about a quarter of the total votes. A test was assigned to ensure consistency and relevance to the user’s needs.
Usability
Testing
Participants were placed in a specific scenario and were given three separate tests related to the top tasks:
“Go to the RickOwens’ website and search for a jacket to wear on a Saturday night out, filtering by size.”
“Check the product page to determine if the item is suitable for you. Select a size and add the item to your shopping cart.”
“Find out how long it will take for the quickest delivery and how much shipping will cost.”
To examine the usability and accessibility issues of the Rick Owens website, it was compared to that of luxury brand Gucci at the same price point and the results were used to determine whether Rick Owens’ website should be redesigned.
The analysis is carried out with the following techniques:
- Performance: Comparing metrics against another retail website. Task time, Task completion, Errors made and Lostness are four metrics in this project.
- Satisfaction: Using ‘Think Aloud‘ methods for qualitative and SUS+NPS for quantitative to measure the usability of the website.
- Biometrics: Using EyeQuant software, with AI technology to reach eye-tracking and analysed the website.
- Heuristics: Using Nielsen and Molich’s heuristic.
- Accessibility: Using WCAG 2.1 Level A requirements to evaluate the essential online pages
- Psychology: Using phycological principles on three levels: introspective, behavioural, and visceral, and five principles –Colour theory, Gestalt principles, Information scent, Dual coding theory and Mental models.
Key Findings
- Use non-international sizing to filter.
- Hard to find the filter bar, delivery policy, delivery fee and category.
- No suitable size chart.
- All the words on the web are the capital, and hard to read.
- All of the text is black, and it’s often difficult to discern the point.
- There is no clear title for the filtering page.
- When hovering over the homepage’s picture, the text on the picture has a very low contrast to the content.
- The error message shows at the top which is hard to notice.
- Use too many unusual titles or abbreviations.
- The menu section lacks a clear and simple logic.
REDESIGN
HOMEPAGE
The former homepage was cluttered with various motifs, and the navigation was unclear, so I reorganised it and split it according to shopping needs, keeping Rick Owens’ monochrome colour scheme on pages.
Preserved the pink colour from the original website, and the explanatory text is displayed when the mouse hovers over the image. The heightened contrast aids in drawing the user’s attention to the text.
NAVIGATION& FILTER
The Dual coding theory indicator has been added next to the address and log-in information, and the wording has been added to the search field to explain it.
Based on the designer’s branding preferences, the filters have been grouped into three categories: seasonal, colour, and size. The original discount formulas have been replaced with a strikethrough. Size information is now available so that visitors are always aware of the garment sizes in stock for filtering purposes.
PRODUCT PAGE
Changed the image position of the garment on the new page so that you can see how a garment looks from different angles immediately without having to do anything and adjust the unit of size to international sizes.
Highlighted the text of “Size Guidance Chart” and clicked on it to allow the user to select the unit of measurement to estimate their size depending on their height and weight. To assist the user in selecting the correct size, utilise different colour blocks to show the various sizes.
SHOPPING BAG PAGE
When reworked this page to add the ability to adjust the quantity and size of the products displayed in the shopping cart, and aligning currency with user location.
Also, to accommodate reading preferences, I changed the longer statements to lower case. The postal cost has been included so that users may view it on the purchasing cart page.
The icon adjacent to “Delivery fee” can be clicked to see the postage cost description screen, which can be customised based on the country where the items are to be sent.
TESTING
The new website was compared to the old one.
The redesigned design was subjected to a Performance Evaluation and Satisfaction Evaluation, all of which were compared to the original. The results show a definite improvement in usability and satisfaction in all aspects compared to the original web pages.
REFLECTION
Usability enables users to accomplish their goals more efficiently and effectively, and accessibility enables more people to use the product, which I strongly support, but it is extremely tough to achieve because the user’s needs and background influence their usage patterns.
A tester that learns UX design will immediately understand the work, strive to locate the important parts of the task, and finish the test swiftly. Outside of the design sector, testers are more likely to do uncontrolled activities with knowledge of the objective, especially for prototyping, and will be intrigued to try to click on buttons that are clearly not part of the task.
This problem is exacerbated with small sample sizes, and possibly when testing tiny samples, such as those with less than 20 people, emphasis should be paid to the ratio of design practitioners to non-design professionals in order to balance professional opinion with general user feedback.