Redesign
UX Audit
The following UX Audit, is an excerpt of the presentation made after the complete audit of the web and mobile app. The task was performed in summer 2022.
User Onboarding
Currently, the onboarding flow consists of two steps:
Initially, users pick their preferred categories, followed by their favorite brands in the second phase.
To enhance the user experience, brand selection will be organized under their respective categories. Improvements can also be made in the category selection interface, which currently uses colored bubbles that can hinder accessibility—for example, using white, thin text against colorful backgrounds. Brand presentations can be more informative, incorporating both the brand's name and logo, and clearly indicating the brand's category.
Discover
The discover section provides a limited set of discovery sections on Desktop. On mobile, it’s an uncategorized list of deals, without any context of grouping. As a result, it looks more like an Instagram for brand deals (endless list of uncategorized content), instead of a Spotify/Netflix or the Apple app store for deals (curated and categorized)
Brand Repetition
Some brands are shown multiple times in a single scroll. This leads to:
- Ad Fatigue, the brand monopolizing the spaces over other brands in the category.
- Users questioning: “Are there any other brands?”
Could AD placement be defined differently to provide a more curated home page?
Search
Some search queries do not return the same results on mobile and desktop.
Product/Service keywords are not associated to brands (unless a brand has an offer with a specific keyword in it.) i.e: When using the desktop site to search for iPhone, Apple does not appear in the search results, while mobile operators that have offers including the keyword “iPhone” appear (on mobile the offers seem to not be indexed).
Suggested enhancement
The current discovery is brand-focused and assumes that the user knows the brands, their products and services.
Specific products or services only appear in the search if a brand has a custom deal on the exact services or products in the deal description.
The brand profile should, (at least in the back-end) be enriched with metadata, tags, and keywords. The result will be a better discovery experience for users looking for product and services.
Deal Cards
Currently deal cards are missing the details about the discount: the conditions of the deal are not stated, and the discount % is not always displayed. There’s more opportunity to provide basic category information for the brand.
We also recommend moving the image below the brand to help separate the brand and the deal details.
Redeeming a Code
Redeeming a code is not difficult.
When using the desktop app it just does not show the T&C upfront.
Some info only appears once you generate the code.
Some deals have limitations, and the user may not be able to redeem it on the partner site.
On Mobile, Terms & Conditions are buried under the scroll, and that makes it easy to miss.
We should provide more information upfront i.e Terms & Conditions should not be hidden.
Imagine a user who wants to buy a new pair of Air Jordans 1 and then only seeing during checkout that the discount code does not apply to selected shoes…
It is a good idea to collect the offer feedback AFTER the code has been used, and maybe in two steps, based on the first choice. The feedback will be more realistic, and the data more valuable.
Brand Profile
Not all brands are made equal.
Strong brands, such as ASOS, have extra media content that links to their website.
However, It’s not clear that those are external links.
On the Unidays website they should open the link in a new tab, right now the link opens in the same browser tab. For the APP, it works as expected, leveraging the in-app browser.
Media contents are not customized for the user. Media should be tagged with categories, interests and audiences to offer a custom UX.
The media content, if tailored for the user, could be aggregated to form a new section on the home page, i.e.: “News from your brands”
UX Playbook
User Onboarding
Unidays onboarding is meant to gather the user's preferences, to provide a light customization of the experience.
Right now, we allow users to select categories and brands. In this version of the category selector, we suggest teasing the brands within the category.
The brand cards allow for more information, e.g. Logo, brand name, main category, and subcategories/tags of a product.
For a future vision, the idea is to provide further customization, and collect more user information.
Before and After
We propose two versions for the onboarding
1. Could be considered as an intermediate step, with squared cards, similar to the current ones on the platform.
2. Present as a list for both screens. This allows you to structure the information in a single column. The user’s eye does not have to jump from one column to the other and provides a faster way to scan the screen and act.
Onboarding Vision
The onboarding should be seen as the first building block for the user customization.
We can extend the onboarding screens by adding a view to collect preferences/tastes based on the interests. Those preferences can be used by brands to create a more diverse offer set, that will cover more needs.
The user profile should be always enriched (passively) collecting usage data and (actively) by submitting quiz answers.
Discover
We suggest providing more structured ways to discover brands and deals; not only based on brands and current categories, but extending it to curated categories and experiences, leveraging also the voices of the community as a driver.
New categories include: Up and Coming, New Brands, New Deals, Recently Used (Re-redeem), Trending Deals (Top 10 Deals), Trending Local (your area), {Service Category}, Experience {Activity}, Learn {Skill}. Curated: Unidays Picks, {college} student picks, {influencer} picks.
With a more refined user customized experience, preferences can trigger user customized categories and suggestions.
Anatomy of the Discovery Sections
Apps that provides centralized content curation, such as Netflix, Spotify, Audible always provides a mix of section that can be:
- Customized on user preferences, interest and tastes
- Generated by engagement, and other metrics
- Curated centrally
and that allows the user to stay engaged, and discover content, this is the concept behind that proposal.
Anatomy of a Deal Card
The current deal card does not provide a clear distinction between the brand who’s publishing the deal, and the deal itself.
The new deal card will have a more prominent split between the two elements.
The only element that requires some A/B testing is the explicit CTA for the deal section, where we could check the open rate of deals with the whole card acting as the deal CTA, and the version with an explicit CTA.
Deal Card Before and After
The proposed deal card provides more information for the user, that are served on a secondary level. The Deal Image and The brand are still the two prominent elements.
The image has been moved after the brand to create a separation between the brand and the deal.
The brand section now provides the main category, and the subcategories.
The images will show the Discount % (that should be still be found in the deal description).
The deal details are enriched with the expiration date (urgency), and a reference to other deals from the brand.
Deeper Customization
What if brands could provide customized content for a user, based on their preferences on the brands and categories they follow?
Imagine ASOS providing looks for a woman who loves a specific style (discerned from similar purchases previously bought on ASOS).
This requires some level of integration, but could be simplified by basing it on the combinations of categories and brands followed on the platform.
Curated Section
What if we empowered selected users to curate categories or provide their feedback on a service or product to share with Unidays users?
In these examples, a Unidays Ambassador has curated her top 4 courses, related to her studies in Fashion Design at the Royal College of Arts, and her favourite places to go out in London.
This gives us a way to customize content to similar users, e.g. Students of similar design schools.
Other Sections
Extra: Tagging Preferences
Creating a structured tagging system to enrich the experience should be a top priority.
If every brand, Deal and User is tagged with preferences, the user experience can be customized.
When brands create deals, they could select the product categories and subcategories (that will be matched with user preferences) that the deals applies to, and the system could automatically generate N. offering.
This will create more offering and more customization for the end user.
If a user likes for example “Smartwatches”, and a Tech Brand is creating a new deal, the Brand can select all the product categories that apply to that deal, and assign at each category a specific product cover. This deal will automatically generate # deals for each category, based on that, each user could receive the best deal based on the preferences.
Creating a deal should become more like creating a Facebook Ads, where you can create multiple audiences and ad-sets for specific cases.
Other Features
Unidays is redefining the way users first interact with our platform, focusing on capturing preferences to craft a uniquely personalized experience. Our enhanced onboarding process introduces users to a world of brands and deals aligned with their tastes from the get-go, setting the stage for a more engaging and relevant shopping journey.
Dive into the enhancements recommended for the app's information architecture and navigation flow, including a revamped Brand Profile for better clarity on offerings and an improved Redeem Code view that ensures all crucial deal details are front and center.
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