About Product X:
Product X is an iOS app that helps beauty consumers find hair products that will most likely work well for them. With the help of this expert system, consumers answer 4 questions via chat and are able to scan or search for hair products to receive personalized predictions (known as match scores) on their performance.
Background:
After designing 3 different options for the barcode scanner screen, I needed to make a decision on which wireframe was best. To learn more about how these wireframes were designed, please click here.
The Project Details
Timeline: ~10 weeks (3-4 sprints); (testing wireframes specifically: <1 week)
Team: The Company X team consisted of a remote team of 3 people: myself, 1 in San Diego, CA, and 1 in Michigan. I worked closest with the Founder/CEO and the CTO/Head Developer
My Role: Director of UX (User Research, User Testing, UX Design)
Tools Used: UsabilityHub.com
Objective:
In order to ensure that the best wireframe was chosen, I decided to create a within-subjects preference test. The goal of this test was to:
Assess which design participants preferred
Understand why they preferred a particular design
In order to achieve these goals, I took the following approach:
Create preference test using UsabilityHub.com
Have users select their preference
Ask why users selected their choice
Testing:
On UsabilityHub, I self-recruited participants by spreading the test link on all of my social media platforms, including different Facebook groups that were specifically for women close to (if not in) our target market. Additionally, I utilized a few Slack channels that I was part of to spread the link and gain feedback as well.
I received responses from a total of 86 participants from nearly 20 different countries; 57 of those participants were located in the United States.
The test took, on average, a little less than 1.5 minutes to complete. All responses were received within 3 days of distributing the link.
Major Findings:
Out of all of the participants, 79% preferred the screen with the brackets
Out of all of the participants from the US, 87% of them preferred the screen with the brackets
Participants preferred the brackets because it was clearer to them and they liked it better than the alternatives
Lessons Learned:
UsabilityHub is a useful platform for getting quick feedback and is great to use with a tight budget
Testing mobile screens is easier on the UsabilityHub platform (when self-recruiting participants) since the mobile screens display well for participants testing on either mobile or desktop devices; testing for desktop may be trickier when self-recruiting because participants who view screens on their mobile device may have trouble viewing the desktop-sized screen which can lead to tainted feedback
Next Steps:
After viewing the test results, it was clear to my team and myself that the design with the brackets was the screen we needed to choose moving forward.
After this test was complete, there was a significant shift in the direction of the company’s core product. Because of this, no further steps were taken on the Product X mobile app v0.2 designs during my time with the company.
Please click here to continue learning about the new product direction, the Product Y for Shopify.