Fry's Electronics provide a one-stop shopping experience for the hi-tech person's needs. It operates online and in nine states with 34 stores, each decked out in fantasy themed motifs. 

THE PROBLEM

The website navigation was messy. Users couldn't find the products they needed. Several repeated categories in the menu. Also, the filter is not sufficiently organized, including products that are not available to purchase online. Lastly, no guest checkout feature can be inconvenient.

THE SOLUTION

Organize the categories in the navigation to make it clearer for users to find products. Add a guest checkout feature and fix the filter function to only include necessary information.

RESEARCH

• Product Research

• Comparative & Competitive Analysis

• Heuristic Evaluations

• Task Analysis & Interview

• Persona, Scenario & Journey Map

• Pain-Point & Solutions

• Feature Prioritization

• Information Architecture

  • Card Sorting

  • Site Map

  • Navigation Schema

  • Users Flows

Product Research

Conducted research on the company and personally tested the website to understand what Fry's offers online. This helped identify the users and how best to approach them during interviews.

The disorganization of the website caused confusion to the users when they went through the task analysis. 

C&C Analysis  

Here is a chart comparing the features of Fry’s website with those of Fry’s competitors. As you can see, Fry’s lacks a guest checkout feature.

Heuristic Evaluations

There are a couple of problems I encountered with the website, most of which have to do with design issues that are fixable. Firstly, we should redesign and reorganize product categories, improve filter settings and add a guest check out feature. These ideas can help generate better flow for their customers.  

Proto Persona, Scenario & Journey Map

Alexander is giving a presentation at a tech conference in Atlanta next week. He realizes his laptop is not functioning properly, and needs to order a replacement so that it arrives before his trip.

From the scenario you can see the Journey map of Alexander process from using the site to find the laptop he needed to checkout. He then realizes there is no guest checkout, but he still decides to buy the laptop as he's already gone through a long process of finding the right laptop. He grew frustrated at the lack of a guest checkout feature, forcing him to create another unwanted online account. However, the deal was to hard to pass.

Card Sorting

Through this process I was able to identify several problems. All of our users had a hard time navigating the website due to the large number of categories. Users felt there were many repeated categories, and they could be organized differently. For example, they suggested that laptops, tablets and desktop computers can go under one category. Home, office, and business related items should have their own category, as well. User’s also said that Fry’s product menu, "Cool Stuff We Sell," sounds too obscure.

Based on the information gathered, I have formulated an efficient way to help users navigate through the website. This led to a re-design, based on my findings.

Site Map

The redesigned homepage provides product images that include daily deals, hot products and new product selections. Users suggested that links such as support services, gift cards, Fry’s credit card and 30 days price match should be within global or primary navigation instead of being in the footer.

As for the "Cool Stuff We Sell" link, users suggested to change it to something more direct, such as “Departments”. This is where the card sorting came in, and helped refine the categories. For example, laptops, PC components, desktops and tablets formed subcategories under Computers & Tablets.

Navigation Schema

The navigation schema is where you can see the site updates and how the global and primary navigation looks. This is where most of the changes made were based on user research.

On the left hand side is the Secondary Navigation where I have re-organized the products into various categories. Each category has several subcategories within them, creating a cleaner look.

Task Scenario & User Flow

Task: You just broke your laptop and you need to buy a replacement before a business trip. Go to frys.com to find a laptop for under $500.

From the task scenario I gave to my users to test, these were the possible outcomes for our user’s particular task.

Our goal is for our users to be able to navigate through the site with ease. The diamond shapes indicate key decisions the user would typically make to complete this particular task.

SKETCH & DESIGN

USABILITY TESTING

The plan is to test our users through one of the task scenarios with the prototype website. This will provide data on the primary changes I made to the navigation bar and the added guest checkout feature. 

ITERATION

After the usability test with Fry's website, the user response to the re-design was clear. There were some minor issues that required fixing, but after changing some design placements, users reported that finding the product through to guest checkout was a smooth process overall. 

• 100% of our testers were able to navigate the tasks without fail

• 100% of our users preferred the new look and the added guest checkout feature

TAKEAWAY

After testing both paper and digital prototypes, users provided great insight. A major takeaway was that users responded positively to a cleaner interface, with categories that were more organized. Minimizing and organizing information helped streamline navigation. Users also liked the fact that they could check out as a guest.

With the help of user research, the website prototype design is functional, intuitive, and efficient, achieving our goals of eliminating pain-points and crafting a better user experience.