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Roomax

Furniture E-commerce Website Redesign

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

Roomax differs from other furniture sites in that they specialize in custom made furniture, so users aren't on the site to buy an item at that very moment. Instead the goal is to get them to set up a time to come into the showroom where their visions will be brought to life. With competitors like Ikea that use affordability to their leverage, Roomax must stand out with a website that showcases their custom made, high quality products while providing an effortless browsing experience. 

Project: Solo website redesign
Client: Roomax
Duration: 5 months
Tools: Figma, Notion, Zoom, Otter,  Google Docs
October 2022

RESEARCH

Stakeholder Interviews

To identify goals, motivations, and research needs for this project, I met one on one with internal stakeholders. We identified 2 main goals we’d like to achieve with this redesign: 

give potential/returning clients an easy way to set up an appointment

get potential clients who are just browsing interested enough in what they see to give a call and/or book an appointment to visit the showroom

The first goal can be accomplished by figuring out any current blockers for users when setting up an appointment. Right off the bat, the second goal tells me content and layout will be an area of focus, but further research is needed to support that.

User Interviews

To identify any pain points and challenges users typically have when furniture shopping, I interviewed a mix of previous Roomax customers and brand new users who have never shopped from them before.
A reoccurring theme was the importance of a variety of options on a site, which was noted for later.

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60% of users mentioned the importance of having a variety of options on a furniture site

Usability Testing on Current Site

To identify any opportunities to improve, I had the same users go through usability testing on the current Roomax site and give their feedback. They were given tasks to complete, with time and # of errors recorded for quantitative data.

Task 1: You have an idea for a piece of furniture you’d like to have built, show me how you’d set up an appointment to discuss your idea with someone at Roomax

 

Created to determine any issues with the current process of booking an appointment.

Task 2: From the Homepage show me how you'd go about finding out the price of a Queen Lateral Wallbed

 

Created to see if users can get to important content quickly + easily

Affinity Map

Organizing user feedback into common themes allowed me to figure out the most high impact problems for users, while keeping in mind our stakeholder goals.

Roomax Homepage.PNG
poor quality images used
inconsistent color and font usage
"custom made" not emphasized enough causing confusion 
hiding useful information under "More" 

Current Roomax Homepage

Key Insights:

Overall Visual Design

Negative feedback about scale in regards to both typography + photography, color contrast and organization of content.

Images Used

100% of users expressed disdain over the images used, mostly due to the fact of them being “outdated” and of lower quality. 

Confusion over Customizable

Every new user was uncertain whether you could buy a product. They felt it’s not clear that the furniture is customizable, with one saying they completely glossed over where it says “Custom Made” 

Usability Test Metrics

On average, users spent 23 seconds searching for a way to contact Roomax, with the longest time being almost 40 seconds. 

This is a problem considering most users will leave a site after 15 seconds, meaning they’ll give up on the Roomax site before even getting the chance to set up an appointment. 

Roomax Homepage.PNG

Why did users take so long?

Most users
found different ways to set up an appointment, with only 1 using the intended “Contact Us” button.

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Why did users avoid the Contact Us button?

Users felt the homepage was
 disorganized and jumbled. This, along with the intensity of the red button blending with the nav bar, caused the button to be ignored by 80% of users.

A user reported wanting to
exit out of the page due to the red .

C&C Analysis

Right off the bat stakeholders expressed concern over the website’s current UI, and usability testing only confirmed it needed a complete redesign. My goal with the C&C was to gain inspiration and a sense of direction, with focus on the following elements that I believe Roomax could improve upon:

Hero Section (Including Mission Statement/Tagline):
Quickly give visitors an idea of what to expect for the rest of the website

Tempting Call to Action:
The easiest way to get visitors to do something is by asking them. It needs to stand out from the rest of the elements within the page

Overview of Services and Features:
It’s important to include a brief summary to reinforce to the users that Roomax has what they’re looking for 

Simple Process Plan:
Laying out a simplified version of the steps users need to take clarifies what they need to do and makes working with Roomax seem easy

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DESIGN

Sketches






Coming up with ideas for the Homepage layout was fairly simple as I was able to get inspiration from the unlimited amount of websites that already have mastered the landing page. What will really make or break it are the images that are ultimately chosen.

Sketch-Homepage together.JPG

Sketch Ideas for Homepage

Sketch-Product page.JPG

Sketch Idea for Product Page

Roomax Current Product Page.jpeg

Current Product Page

The product page was a bit more complicated because I was unsure what inspiration to draw from, considering most sites allow you to purchase a product.

Based on user feedback,
key areas for improvement are :

  • too much text

  • a disorganized layout of measurement and pricing

  • an overwhelming amount of pictures

Mid-Fi

For the Homepage redesign, I relied heavily on the C&C analysis to come up with solutions for the main problems that came up during testing. I focused on:

  • Hero Section & Tagline

  • Call to action(s)

  • Overview of Services + Features

  • Simple Process Plan

Homepage Midfi Recording

Homepage Mid-Fi

Product Page Midfi.png

Mid Fi Product Page

Roomax Current Product Page.jpeg

Current Product Page

For the Product Page, user feedback helped set the direction while indirect competitors, such as Ikea, helped with inspiration. 

Final Prototype

Usability testing where different users were assigned the same tasks shows a decrease of 7.02 seconds in Task 1 compared to the original. 

Why did users take a shorter time booking an appt?

Based off user feedback,  returning users
found improvement on visual design, with emphasis on content + layout. What was once described as a site that "reads like a word document" has now improved upon typography, color contrast, and visual hierarchy 

Desktop Homepage.png
Wallbeds.png

Final Thoughts

Positive Results And Much More To Do

When looking back at stakeholder goals, the improved metrics and overall feedback from users on the redesign proved to be a success.

Yet there was enough feedback regarding other screens that could also be refined a bit, such as the Product Listing page and Contact Form.

The Challenge With Research

There was a lot of creative freedom with this project, which somehow made it a bit more tedious. The unlimited amount of directions I could've gone became obvious during initial research, and it became hard to narrow it down.  It's easy to overwhelm and overthink at some stages.

Summary

Overall, this project helped me explore different avenues of research, such as Market Research + Competitive Analysis. Having complete control of the design process was overwhelming, but exactly the practice I needed after taking some time away from Figma. My first design project back after a gap and I couldn't be more content with this opportunity.

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