 Marketplace Evaluation TakeawaysVery densely saturated |  Speciality MarketsMuch less saturated aka opportunuty |
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MY ROLE
This was my individual project. I was responsible for its every aspect:
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evaluation of the original site
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comparative/competitive analysis
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building user flows
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buiding site maps
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creating working prototype
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creating annotated wireframes
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conducted usability testing
Competitive/Comparative Analysis
I approached this by narrowing my choices down to just a few successful online food markets and comparing them on 4 main points:
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look-and-feel since buying food involves intuitive emotional aspect,
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wording used for naming and describing products,
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convenience features, like filters,
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and the ease of checkout process.
ITERATING
USABILITY TESTING
USER FLOWS
THE GOAL
Eataly is a gourmet marketplace located in New York City with a very distinct physical look-and-feel. The goal of thIs project is to make Eataly the most convenient fastest place online to shop for Italian delicacies.
It's a 'pretent' school project with the idea of creating the best e-commerce platform for a Eataly's pop-up shop with inventory of 100 products.
RESEARCH: Evaluation/Site Audit/Comparative/Competitive Analysis/Contexual Interviews
I created a functional prototype for locating, selecting and buying a product.
The prototype was built in Axure.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PROTOTYPE
SOLUTION
Scenario/Storyboard
The best way to improve the experience is to go through it as a user. Below is the composite user persona going through the process of buying a gift in Eataly.
Evaluation
The first step in the process was to evaluate the competitive landscape for selling food on-line. It turned out that it's highly competitive and the marketplace is densely saturated.
Takeaways From Interviewing
In order to come up with ideas on improvement, I summarized what it is that people are looking for an and possibly missing in Eataly's web presence.
IDEATING
Home Page
Here are a few changed that needed to be done after user testing: menu made more explicit, placeholders for 'specials' more prominent.
I tested with 8 users. The users were given a task to find and buy 2 bottles of Maccia D'Agliastru Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Optionally users could read about the product or just fly though checkout process. Nobody had difficulties locating the product though main menu and inside the category. Some users were a bit confused with the checkout. All the issues found in testing were addressed in the final iteration.
Contexual Interviews
I interviewed a number of people to find out thier habits for online food shopping in general, i.e. whether they buy food online, what food they buy, where and why. The general goal of the inquiry was to find out the pain points associated with the process. More specific part was to find out if they buy from Eataly or not and why.
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Data Architecture/Taxonomy
Organazing inventory is of primary importance since it can make search for products very pleasant experience or a terrible frustrating one. I approached the process with meticulos card sorting in order to group the products.
Next important step is naming each cathegory with 'tasty' and descriptive sounding name.
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Checkout Page
I wanted to make checkout a 1 step process. Even thought it tested quite well with the users, it had to go through quite a few iterations. The option for creating an account proved to be confusing, the option for 'reviewing order' was nor prominent enough, the 'must fill' fields were not clearly marked.
As a part of deliverables, I provided annotated wireframes for each screen.
 HOME Landing Page |  CATEGORIES Landing Page |
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 PRODUCT Page |  PURCHASE CONFORMATION Page |
THE SOLUTION
I created a functional prototype for locating, selecting and buying a product. To make process as efficient as possible I came up with explicit product menu and reduced check-out process to 1 step.
The prototype was built in Axure.