Good On You Plugin
A plugin that empowers shoppers to make more sustainable decisions.
Role
I am a supporter of the company, so I did an unsolicited redesign doing research, UX / UI design and prototyping.
Date
Working at night and on weekends for 2 months as a passion project.
Company Overview
Good On You is a collective that rates fashion companies on their performance regarding the environment, social responsibility and impact on animals. The collective has a website, an app, and a plugin.
Problem
The plugin currently only has 208 users and even though users know that the brands they like are rated “not good enough”, they don’t have enough incentive to change their shopping habits.
Goal
Broaden the scope of the information to uncover potential users and discover other ways to persuade the users to make more sustainable choices.
How are people shopping?
To solve the problem, I first wanted to learn about people’s shopping habits.
User Interviews & Surveys
I conducted 30 surveys and 5 user interviews. I wanted to know how people are shopping and if they even care about sustainability.
Key Insights
I have found that people have split opinions on sustainability and aftercare using affinity mapping and dot plotting
What do people need?
People wish they could shop in stores so they don’t misunderstand the fabric and sizing.
People do more research on high priced items.
People do not understand aftercare symbols.
People are willing to buy sustainable products, but they mistrust the marketing that they see.
People are looking to their peers for advice and recommendations.
Who are the potential users?
I identified 1 primary persona and 1 secondary persona. As you follow their journey in shopping for a weatherproof jacket, you can see how both of their experiences are not positive due to the lack of clear information.
Hypothesis
Consumers can be empowered to make more meaningful purchases if they have a way to resolve confusion in fabric terminology, size discrepancy, aftercare symbols and green-washing.
What does the current plugin lack?
The current live plugin has a few limitations. I did an audit on the current design to identify key user pain points.
Users are given very limited information on the plugin popup.
The information is not personal and persuasive. The rating criteria is not explained.
Users are lead to a separate website to get more information, which disrupts the shopping experience.
There is no information on the item the users are looking at.
Defining the MVP
This part was hard because the instinct is to provide the users with all the information they could look for, but information overload is never a good idea.
I noted key features that directly solved the 4 problem areas that I identified from the research, and asked users to card sort and rank them by usefulness. The features that are consistently ranked higher are included in the MVP.
Keyword popup feature
Gives users information on industry terminology without leaving the page.
This information is pulled from a keyword glossary on the Good on You website.
Rating Tab
Brand rating information
Gives users a quick idea of how sustainable the brand is.External links
Guides users to other online resources to get more robust information.Visual rating system - Planet, People, Animal
Shows users how the brand score under the 3 rating scale.Product review via Google
Google reviews for the specific product that the user is viewing.
Google is identified by users as a top tool to use during research.Product review via Youtube
Top youtube videos on the product, collection, or brand to see the item in action.
Youtube is identified by users as a top tool to use during research.
Info Tab
Size finder Via FitAnalytics
Users can take a short quiz to find the best size to buy.
FitAnalytics is an industry-leading company for finding accurate sizing.Visual aftercare guide
Shows users symbols and text to familiarize users with aftercare symbols.Additional aftercare guide
Showing users relevant aftercare tips.
This information is either pulled from the brand website itself or the Good on You database.Speciality aftercare products needed
Showing users any additional speciality product needed to do aftercare.
This information is pulled from the brand website.
Wishlist Tab
Save item feature
Allows the users to save an item to view in the future. Users can compare similar items before purchasing.
Here is how all the elements work on an actual website.
Working through iterations.
I created low fidelity wireframes and started testing on how useful the information is and how intuitive the buttons are. Small changes were expected but one function turned out to be quite a conundrum.
During testing, people loved the idea of being able to save interesting items so they didn’t need to keep a million tabs open, however, the term “BOOKMARK” didn’t bring about the action that completed the task.
Some of the feedback that I considered are:
60% of users expressed the instinct of wanting the BOOKMARK symbol somewhere they can access no matter what page of the extension they are on.
50% of users didn’t think of the word BOOKMARK translated to the action they should perform.
80% of users wanted some kind of confirmation after pressing the call-to-action button.
After some iterations, I did 8 more un-monitored user testing sessions. Unfortunately, it was apparent that people are just as confused as ever. This time I tested with the extension in context - on top of an actual website. People clicked all over the website instead of the extension window trying to save an item. A few people then asked why is this action not grouped with the already saved items, and voila, we have gone full circle.
Changing the usability test
The flip flop of results suggested that the earlier usability tests are flawed. I was too quick to let suggestions that came up during the usability tests become the solution.
To understand how to make the save function more intuitive, I created a test where people are separately presented with 3 different options to save. I then watched their interactions with the 3 options and talked to them about their experience with each.
On the latest version of the prototype, I went back to the original placement of the save button, which is grouped with the other saved items. The name of the tab was changed to WISHLIST, which was identified as the most relatable word in the usability test.
Because shoppers have identified the photo as the main focus of the shopping experience, I also wanted to design a save feature directly on the website itself. After discussing this idea with a developer, I learned that to do this, the brand would have to partner with Good on You to build the feature into the website. This is definitely an idea to revisit.
Organizing the elements
Since the original plugin didn’t have a lot of UI elements, I had to design it from scratch. I referenced the Good On You website to make sure all the products look like they belong in the same family.
The prototype
After some iterations, I landed on the prototype that would benefit the majority of the users.
Explore the latest prototype and let me know what you think!
What did I learn?
Be agile as things will always change and evolve. The MVP was defined and redefined and questioned multiple times.
Face the facts even if I want things to be different. Making evidence-based decisions will save lots of redesign down the road.
Keep biases in check during interviews and usability tests. Biases will skew my ability to see the actual problems.
What can I consider?
What if we can suggest more sustainable alternatives?
What if we can have a community of people who can trade 2nd hand goods similar to what the users are browsing?
The road to shop sustainably is so different from how consumers have been trained to do. The goal is to slowly change that habit and save our planet.