User experience > Case study 3

Why were Merchants were not using the 'My Customers' page?

Summary

Time spent by merchants on the 'My Customers' page was much lower when compared to other pages in the application. Stakeholders wanted to increase this metric, but first I had to understand why merchants were not using this page?

If users can not see functionality they will not know it exists. By moving the filters it made them more obvious, and merchants could understand clearly the page's value, which led to increased engagement.

Goal

Increase the time merchants spend on the 'My Customers' page.

Hypotheses

Merchants do not know they can update data on the 'My Customers' page because they can not see the filters.

Introduction and context

The problem was merchants were not engaging with the 'My Customers' page. Even though the page had useful data. Merchants could see how often customers visited their store, how far away they lived, how much they spent and so on.

Highlighted below is the position of the filters after being moved. The numbers show how visible an area is when compared to the designs average. Moving the filters made them look like part of the main page and almost ten times more visible.

New filter position across the top of the screen

Getting stakeholders on board with proposed design improvements

Stakeholders were familiar with the product and found it hard to imagine merchants could not see the filters. I needed some evidence to prove that the position of the filters was the main problem.

I used Optimalworshop to setup some click tests. The process was straightforward; I gave users some tasks and observed where and how quickly they clicked on the screen. Three tasks in total; one tested the visibility of the current filters, the remaining two tested new positions.

Results from the click tests:

  1. The current filter position performed worst based on the task, longest time 16.98s and least accurate 50%
  2. I was convinced filters on the left were best, but accuracy was 70% and the time to complete the task was 10.21s
  3. Filters across the top were most accurate, 80% and just 1 second slower at, 11.37s

Current filter position the dots show where users clicked on a screen based on the task

Filter on the left highlighted shows where users clicked based on the task

Filters positioned across the top and where users clicked

Eye tracking

I tested the new design using an eye-tracking simulator Visual eyes the software predicts what users will pay attention to. Based on the results, I felt confident that the new filter was more visible than the current position.

What users are paying attention to, more red means greater attention

Not much attention is paid to the filter when positioned at the top of the screen

Outcomes and results

Moving the filter proved to be very successful, I achieved the goal of increasing the time users spend on 'My Customers' page

  1. The new filter position is almost ten times more noticeable than the current position
  2. The decision to move the filters was based on evidence
  3. Stakeholders understood that UX is more than look and feel and can have measurable effects on business goals