New Amazon Feature: Allergy Profile
Background
As the consumers using e-commerce for groceries rise, specifically Amazon. Which according to a poll conducted in January 2020, 34 percent of consumers in the United States preferred the grocery delivery services provided by the online marketplace Amazon. One year later, the share of respondents using Amazon to order groceries online amounted to nearly 36 percent. What is also growing is the rate of food allergies worldwide. It has increased from around 3% of the population in 1960 to around 7% in 2018. And it isn't just the rate that has increased. The range of foods to which people are allergic has also widened (BBC,2020).
The Challenge
With more consumers/users having to filter through thousands of products for food that are safe to eat, listed ingredients and allergen warnings are important. How can we reduce the time spent on reading through the ingredients and create an easier food shopping experience?
Solution
Create a profile filtering system, so that Amazon users and consumers can easily filter through products based on their allergy profiles.
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher, Branding, Project Manager
Timeline: 4 weeks/20 hours per week
4 Step Process
1.Empathize 2.Define 3.Ideate 4.Prototype & Test
1. Empathize: Gathering Insights & Understanding the Users
Research Goals:
1. To study and discover the differences in potential/existing customers’ common shopping behaviors, habits, motivation, and preferences when shopping online and in stores for groceries.
2. Research current market trends of online food stores/delivery apps and what is currently working for other e-commerce companies as well as competitors.
3. Find the negatives and pain points of customers that shop online for groceries.
4. Identify features Amazon customers need and want to provide a good user experience while maintaining business goals.
5. Discover needs and pain points for those with food allergies/intolerances when shopping online for groceries.
User Interviews
I interviewed 4 participants ages 20-60 with diverse backgrounds and genders. To gain a variety of perspectives, Amazon sellers and consumers were interviewed.
Summary from the consumer:
If they try out the product and they like it, they will start buying it online.
Users who use apps such as amazon say that they find it difficult to find the food allergens and never know where to scroll for the product. It is lost in the product description and hard to find.
Most of the time it is not even highlighted and just lost in all the text.
Going to see the product in-store is important to them and usually, they read the labels and food allergens in person first, since it is easier to find.
Question: Why are allergens such as gluten within the product title when certain big common allergies are not?
**Look into diet culture, and their impact on food allergens.
Summary from the seller:
Sellers do not have a filtering option to select the allergen warning.
They take pictures of products and their nutrition facts and ingredients but that's it.
Product descriptions are manually put in and in one solid text.
2. Define
Mind Map
Using the primary and secondary research, I created a mind map based on how each user's experience would be and the obstacles they might face. The main focus and goal are to help overcome the obstacles for the user that shops with food allergies.
User Persona
The user persona was created based on Amazon’s allergy features target audience.
3. Ideate
Task Flow
A Task flow is a linear path of steps the users will follow to complete a task. For this project, I made a task flow for both the consumer user and seller.
User Flow
Following the Task Flow, I created a User Flow that takes the user from their entry point through a set of steps to purchase a product.
Wireframes
Low-Fidelity
Going back to my research, I first sketched out a number of drafts and after narrowing it down to two, I transferred them over to figma.
Amazon UI Kit
High-Fidelity Wireframes
4. Prototype & Test Findings
Test objectives
- Track and observe how users navigate the site to complete tasks.
- Understand user’s experience and understanding of flows.
- Identify features/design elements that users find challenging or obstacles the user will face from completing the task easily.
- Identify areas of confusion or error for the user.
Iteration and Implementation
Participants:
- 5 users
- All genders
- Age 20-60
Goals:
100% Completion rate
100% Error-free rate
Test Findings
Pain Points:
Trying to find the allergy profile page takes a lot of steps.
Still need to read through the product description and wish it is in larger text.
Wins:
Design is very close to the Amazon App.
Easy to add allergy to profile.
Nice to have the extra confirmation page.
Having the profile name on each page gives me assurance that this is customizable to me.
Next Steps & thoughts…
With the test results and feedback, I will make the revisions to the prototype and go through another round of testing. I realized with Amazon’s website, making sure that there are access points to what the user needs is crucial. There is a lot of information and copy on the website, user’s can easily get lost in everything.
After working on the Amazon website, I realized how important site maps and user roadmaps can be. These are things that I did not do for this project, and it made me want to go back and do it moving forward.