If you’ve ever gone to a website and thought, “what the heck?” or something similar, I can almost guarantee that UX (or lack of UX planning) has made such an impression on you. But what is UX Planning and why is it so important?
What is UX?
UX stands for ‘user experience’ and planning for this area is crucial to the success of any eCommerce website design project. If we consider that there are two types of experiences – positive and negative – and that each of these experiences leads to the user completing a certain action, we know that we need to design each experience in such a way as to successfully steer the user towards achieving our goals. These goals may be to purchase a product or service, register, subscribe, download a document or any number of other such actions.Why is UX Planning Important for eCommerce Projects?
eCommerce web development projects are complex, involving many internal and external stakeholders, multiple layers of requirements, and various industry best practices to be included. Each of these factors presents sheer complexity for any project, but to add to the mix, the eCommerce industry is also notorious for being difficult to predict. Customers expect to engage with their favorite brands in a cohesive and easy-to-navigate environment. For eCommerce web development agencies, this means accounting for numerous possibilities when designing an online store. It is because of these complexities that designers need to integrate strategy into the process of building an eCommerce website design. There are several reasons why UX planning is valuable for any eCommerce project. It ensures that the end result will be the most beneficial for both the client and users, while also saving valuable time and resources down the road. Most people see design as an output or end-result of an eCommerce website design project, but in reality, it is a process that starts at the very beginning of any successful project.Understanding your eCommerce website users
At Brain & Code, we adopt a user-centric approach to our projects – so if we don’t know who your users are, then how would we be able to optimize the website experience for your users? That’s why we always start every project by asking the right questions and dig up necessary data at the Planning & Discovery phase. The earlier we can get a strong understanding of your user, the more beneficial it will be and the more impact it will have on the final product. The user insights we gain will ultimately drive key design decisions throughout the entire project. Whether we are building a website for a B2B or B2C eCommerce business, we need to find out who your customers are and what makes them tick. What do they want from you? What motivates them to buy? What really annoys them about your website? What are some features they would love to have that are missing on your website? What time of day and on what device do they use at different points in their buyer journey? Will they choose convenience over price? Do they take their coffee with milk? Yes, we want every little detail. The more you know about your customer, the better you will be able to create a compelling and engaging eCommerce experience.UX Research Methods for eCommerce Design
OK, now that you understand the importance of proper planning and research for UX and agree that it’s not a good idea to just assume what your customers want, you might be wondering what UX research activity will give the best bang for buck. The answer is, some UX methods are more appropriate than others depending on the project. Factors we use to decide which methodologies are best for you include the business’s UX digital maturity, project time and budget constraints, type of website and product you are selling, and your business and project priorities. UX research methods appropriate for the planning stage of a project loosely fall into two categories:- Discover
- Explore
Discover
Being at the discovery stage of your UX research and planning means you are looking to validate your assumptions. This is where you put aside your biases and focus on watching, listening, and asking questions. By facilitating stakeholder interviews and watching user sessions, you can learn a lot about what your end user wants (and doesn’t want) from your eCommerce website. Another hidden gem for insights into your current eCommerce UX pain-points is, chat with your customer service reps and review call logs and support tickets. After all, your goal with an effective eCommerce website in most cases is to have your customer successfully self-serve to reduce costs. Our Certified Adobe Experts and UX / Usability Analysts leave no stone unturned at the early stage of projects. With thorough requirements and needs analysis, we can determine the best roadmap for your project and mitigate risks down the road. Examples of discovery activities include:- Field studies
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User interviews
- Requirements analysis
- Sales team interviews
- Customer support team interviews
Explore
Once you have discovery stage input, it is now time to pair the problems you are trying to solve for with potential design solutions. In eCommerce website UX and UI design, examples of exploratory activities include:- Task analysis
- Journey mapping
- User stories
- Persona development
- Competitive analysis
- Card sorting (for information architecture strategy)
- Wireframing and prototyping
