RICK OWENS
Usability Principles and practice | Evaluation and Redesign
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Title: Rick Owens website redesign
Type of Work: Individual masters project | Usability Evaluation, UX, UI
Extent of project: Nov, 2021 - Jan, 2022 | 8 weeks
rickowens.eu was evaluated to identify usability issues faced by users when completing top tasks. The evaluation consisted of performance, satisfaction, biometrics, heuristics, accessibility, and psychology. The results from tests were used to inform the redesign suggestion. A/B testing was then used to see if usability has been improved.
About
PROCESS
DISCOVER
IDENTIFY TOP TASKSUSABILITY TESTINGUSER JOURNEYDEFINE
EVALUATION CONCLUSION DEVELOP
REDESIGNANALYSISDELIVER
FINAL PROTOTYPEDESIGN REPORTTOP TASKS
A class survey identified the tasks that were important to users while shopping online out of 80 tasks, these included images quality, search, delivery and sizing information.
Task type
The following task types were given for review of the website to identify positive aspects and problems in using it:
Search and Filter – Start from the homepage, search for a jacket to wear on a weekend night out, filter for your size, once you have found a suitable garment, click on it, and view the details.
Sizing Information – Now you are on the chosen product’s check that the garment will fit you via the sizing information, select the correct size for you, add the garment to your basket.
Delivery Information – You have just added a garment to your shopping basket, find information on how long the fastest delivery will take and cost of delivery, when you feel you know the answer, you have finished.
USER JOURNEY
To complete the tasks outlined, the user journey consists of 8 steps. An alternative journey is to click on 'men' or 'women' image on the homepage, however, the task requires users to filter results so this journey is more appropriate.
User journey of assigned taskHEURISTICS
Heuristic evaluation is a ‘usability engineering method for finding the usability problems in a user interface design so that they can be attended to as part of an iterative design process.’ (Nielsen, 1994). Heuristics are essential to usability because they 'reveal insights that can help design teams enhance product usability from early in development' and is a 'practical way to solve problems or make decisions' (Interaction Design Foundation, 2014)
SAMPLE AND SETTING
This was carried out by a group of 6 evaluators who were UX masters students who come from different backgrounds and experiences, this was beneficial because from experience it is proven that ‘different people find different usability problems. Therefore, it is possible to improve the effectiveness of the method significantly by involving multiple evaluators’ (Nielsen, 1994). The evaluation was conducted in person in a study room where each person had individual access to the Rick Owen website.
CONCLUSION
The problems identified in the table below are all valid however due to limitations in time and resources the key problems that were looked at are those that fall in the medium and serious category, this is because medium rated problems 'will make some customers feel frustrated or irritated' and serious rated problems 'will significantly slow down some customers when completing a common task and may cause customers to find a workaround'(Travis, 2009).
Table showing problems and severity of HeuristicsACCESSIBILITY
As a designer making web content accessible to as many people as possible is the responsible thing to do. Accessibility makes it possible for users with different abilities ‘understand, use and enjoy the web’ (Avinash Kaur, 2018). An evaluation was done on rickowens.eu to assess its compliance with WCAG 2.1 level A (W3c,2018) which covers guidelines, standards, and techniques for web accessibility.
SAMPLE AND SETTING
Accessibility is accessed by experts, that is why the evaluation was carried out by a design team which consisted of 6 masters UX students.
CONCLUSION
After undertaking the accessibility analysis for the Rick Owen website using WAVE, it does not meet many of WCAG 2.1 guidelines. However the issues which were problematic in relation to the top task are:
The search icon needs to have a visible descriptive label to give the user clarity.
The products page does not have a seamless filter option and it is not in an ordered list.
There is not a visible description for text label on forms, and the text size is small to read.
Table showing positives and negatives of perceivable heuristics PERFORMANCE
A performance evaluation was carried out with the objective to determine the increase in the level of performance when users used the site in comparison with another retail website. The four factors considered were:
Time it took to complete each task
How successful completing each task was
How efficient was completion of each task (errors made)
Lostness over the task as a whole
SAMPLE AND SETTING
This was carried out by a design team which consisted of 34 masters UX students, (2 groups of 16).
CONCLUSION
The tests carried out on both website showed that the there was no significant effect on the task time, lostness and errors made. Both website received a lostness score below 0.4 which indicates both are easy of use. The completion scores showed a significant difference, indicating Rick Owens is more efficient.
Average time and error count results from performance tests.SATISFACTION
User satisfaction for the Rick Owens website was conducted and evaluated using thematic analysis (using ‘Think Aloud’) and System Usability Scale (SUS). The ‘Think Aloud’ method is qualitative and involves identifying reoccurring themes in a transcript. ‘it generates direct data on the ongoing thought processes during task performance’ (Jaspers et al., 2004). The aim is to identify problems faced while using the website and improve these. The SUS method is subject to participants answering a standard set of statements and the data is analysed quantitatively.
SAMPLE AND SETTING
UX masters students were participants, The ‘Think Aloud’ exercise was tested on 4 groups of 6 and the SUS survey was done by the entire class of 77, this means that any statistical tests run will have an increased chance of application accuracy with the size being large enough to achieve the desire power of 0.8 (80%).
CONCLUSION
The qualitative and quantitative tests results indicates the need for a redesign to increase positive user experience and satisfaction. In comparison to its competition (Gucci) who also had poor SUS score, it did worse in performance.
Bar chart showing individual SUS scores in satisfaction analysisPSYCHOLOGY
There are three levels of information processing which are visceral, behavioural, and reflective. Visceral and behavioural levels are subconscious and the home of basic emotions. The reflective level is where conscious and decision-making reside, as well as the highest level of emotions (Norman, 2013). To optimise user interaction all three levels should be considered, applying different principles, models and theories of psychology can achieve this.
SAMPLE AND SETTING
I evaluated rickowens.eu against selected psychological principles using the Google Chrome web browser.
CONCLUSION
Rick Owens website has mostly poor application of the principles and models of psychology. The overall appearance is reflective of the brand image with the use of a monochrome black and white design which works, however, the usability of the website has lots of issues, with the information scent being critically poor due to the website's mostly confusing structure.
Analysis on UX principles of psychologyBIOMETRICS
Eye tracking was the main technique used for this analysis. The aim is to identify patterns of visual attention of individuals as they perform specific tasks, this is important because 'eye tracking provides clues to user cognition and interaction which facilitates our understanding of which elements of web pages receive attention' (Kim et al., 2014).
SAMPLE AND SETTING
EyeQuant AI software was used to generate heatmaps of eye tracking so there was no need for participants. I selected the analysis for first time users so that the solutions can cover potential new customers, this was done using chrome browser.
CONCLUSION
From this analysis the main redesign issues revealed are:
Important elements relevant to the top task should receive more focus.
relevant features should be apparent to the user.
Menu list should be arranged logically.
The hierarchy of information on the product page should be resolved.
Sizing information should have more visibility.
Eye tracking analysis on rickowens.eu websiteWEBSITE REDESIGN AND ANALYSIS
LANDING PAGE
SUMMARY
The poor colour contrast of the text over the image was changed in the redesign by making the text bolder. This conforms to colour theory and is more accessible.
The information on the original landing page is targeted at women, however the collection is for both men and women so the order of hierarchy was changed and the redesign introduces the collection without focusing on either gender. This addresses the information scent.
The word 'F W 22' has been changed to 'FALL / WINTER to help with recognition rather than recall, minimising users memory load.
The current design shows the media automatically playing in a loop, there is no control over this. The redesigned page gives users control and indicates that the video has no sound.
Initial landing page
Redesigned landing page
HOMEPAGE
SUMMARY
The redesign addresses the accessibility issue of the text and logo being hard to read. The logo has been replaced to make it more bolder and clear to read while keeping the same branding.
The word 'F W 22' has been changed to 'FALL / WINTER to help with recognition rather than recall, minimising users memory load.
The redesign places the 'STROBE WOMEN FALL/WINTER22' at the bottom of the page as this collection has been introduced as the landing page in the original design. This replaces the position of 'NEW ARRIVALS' in the current design.
The 'NEW ARRIVALS' section which was originally at the bottom of the page was moved to the top in the redesign adhering to information scent.
The arrow to navigate to the top page has very low contrast on the current design, this has been addressed in the new design and an accessibility icon has been added to allow users flexibility and efficiency of use.
The top navigation buttons have been simplified to follow platform conventions. The 'search' 'login' and 'bag' buttons have accompanying text following principles of mental model and dual coding theory.
The redesign of the buttons at the end of the page have been arranged to follow a logical order with the information scent representative of where it should lead to.
The headings of each list follow gestalt principle of similarity with distinct font types.
Original home page
Redesigned home page
MENU
SUMMARY
Illogical order of current menu has been changed to follow a logical order.
The List on left side has also been simplified by grouping current options.
Original menu
Redesigned menu
SUMMARY
The redesigned page adds the 'HELP' shortcut button to allow flexibility and ease of use
The 'WOMEN' category is bolded to show current selection.
Filter button has been made more prominent and obvious to help user with tasks.
'Login' button has been moved to the right of the screen in proximity with other elements that follow the dual theory.
users can change the country they are shopping in at the top right of the page.
The number of products for selection are stated in the redesign.
The low colour contrast of size information when hovered over has been changed in the redesign.
Hover effect is removed so user can check size without losing focus of product. User can also swipe product to view different angles of product allowing control and freedom.
PRODUCTS PAGE
Original products page
Redesigned products page
PRODUCTS PAGE - FILTERS
SUMMARY
Filter options which was hard to read and displayed in a cluttered unconventional manner was redesigned to give user control on which subcategory to focus on to avoid information overload
The text in the redesign is larger and easier to read and unconventional words like 'OS' has been replaced with 'ONE SIZE
The redesign shows the filter button indicating the filter selections have been applied, this is missing in the current design.
Original product page filter options
Redesigned product page filter options
SELECTED PRODUCT
SUMMARY
Redesign of selected product page arranges the order of information by placing the title of product at the top in bolded font
All the available sizes of the product are shown and users are given the 'email' icon to allow for notification for out of stock sizes.
Colour of product is accompanied by a visual.
Image alignment has been designed so the user can scroll to the other images on one side of the screen and focus on the text information on the other side.
The call to action 'add to cart' button has been made to stand out with a high contrast and large size.
Size guide, product information, and delivery / returns have been added to provide help and documentation.
Font size has been changed to make it easier to read.
Original selected product page
Redesigned selected product page
SIZE GUIDE
SUMMARY
Existing size guide is unclear and does not have measurements. The redesign addresses this by adding measurements and international conversions.
A visual of how to measure is also added to provide help and ease of use to users and is in line with dual coding theory.
Font size has also been changed to make it easier to read.
Original size guide
Redesigned size guide
DELIVERY INFORMATION
SUMMARY
Delivery information that was hard to find and hard to read has been redesigned so information is placed in relevant subcategory and important information are bolded.
Original delivery information
Redesigned delivery information
A/B TEST - PERFORMANCE
The scores were calculated as an average and compared to each other. The redesign shows significant difference in the scores in a positive way. The participants all completed the tasks with minimal errors and lostness made compared to the original website. It is important to note that the errors that were made were due to the prototype buttons not indicating where to click and not the flow of the design.
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Results of average time and error count from performance tests.
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Results of average lostness and task completion from performance tests.
A/B TEST - SATISFACTION
The qualitative and quantitative tests results indicate the redesign is satisfying to use and increases positive user experience in comparison to the original design.
The results from the analysis can only be interpreted as an indication and cannot be accurately applied to majority of users due to limited sample size. However as it stands, the implications of the redesign are positive and addresses the usability and accessibility issues that were identified throughout rickowen.eu evaluation.
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Individual average SUS scores of redesign in comparison to original version.
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Overall SUS scores from satisfaction tests.
FIGMA PROTOTYPE
For full report contact me at pukaiwe@gmail.com