Redesigning the favoriting experience
How might we make it easier and more accessible for Camping World customers to save, edit and share their favorite products?
My Role: UX and UI Designer, Researcher
Timeline: 3 weeks
Tools: Sketch, Invision, UserTesting.com
Background:
Camping World sells recreational vehicles (RVs), auto parts, and camping gear with an annual revenue near $5 billion. Camping World RVs and gear are sold across 120 retail locations in 36 states, as well as through Camping World owned retail websites: Campingworld.com, Ganderoutdoors.com, and Overtons.com. Mobile devices account for over 60% of traffic across these sites.
The Problem:
As part of an overall redesign of the Camping World website, I was tasked to review and improve the customer wish list functionality to better align with user needs.
Before:
The Solution:
A redesigned “favoriting” experience:
Renamed feature, from “Wish List” to “My Favorites”
Removed the account creation barrier by allowing all site visitors to save products as a favorite
Implemented system feedback after key user actions
Allowed users to easily view, edit and share items within their Favorites list
Discover: Research
Research Plan:
It was important to ensure we received feedback from users on what currently is working, and what is not working, within the Camping World Wish List experience. I was also interested to understand what users like about competitors’ Wish List experiences. To direct my research plan, the following goals were outlined:
Competitor Analysis:
Key competitive insights:
Most competitors call the feature “Wish List” (except Target and Crate & Barrel call it “Favorites”)
Most competitors require the user to create an account in order to create a wish list (Crate & Barrel is the exception)
“Add to Wish List” icon is often found near “Add to Cart” button (Target is the exception, where they place it on their product image)
Each brand allows users to share their curated lists
When a saved item is out of stock, an estimated re-stock date is provided
Market Research and Data Analysis:
These two statistics drove me to run user tests on existing Wish List experiences. Before moving further in the design process, I wanted to understand why and how users interact with their wish lists, and whether or not asking a user to create an account is a barrier to this feature.
User Testing on Competitor Experiences:
To gain in-depth user feedback, I wanted to view users interacting with the existing Wish List experience on Camping World as well as two additional e-commerce websites. I chose to benchmark Camping World against Target and Crate & Barrel. Target was chosen for its well known and extensive e-commerce experience and Crate & Barrel was chosen for insight since it doesn’t require a user to log-in to create a list.
Unmoderated tests were conducted across desktop and mobile sites via Usertesting.com, with audio and screen recording enabled.
Affinity Diagram:
After reviewing the recorded users tests, I synthesized user statements, pain points, and overall noteworthy call outs into an affinity diagram. With this technique, I grouped similar responses together in order to see patterns in user responses, which eventually led to my proposed updates to the experience.
"Camping World didn’t have a way to add an item as a favorite from the product list view, but Target did have that. I like the way Target does it."
— User Testing Feedback
“The fact that I have to create a Camping World account to complete these tasks makes it difficult. It takes up time and is annoying.”
— User Testing Feedback
Research Results:
Requiring users to create an account to save/favorite products is extremely disrupting to the flow and caused a lot of frustration
It’s important to keep users on their “happy shopping path” (don’t send them to the list while they are shopping)
Providing clear system feedback is crucial for users to understand that they have completed their task
Users like to be able to favorite items from a product listing page (PLP), without having to click into the product detail (PDP)
Favorite/save icon needs to be clearly visible (avoid placing it directly over the product image)
Users often save items to watch for price drops, so it’s important to ensure sale pricing is reflected in saved items
Many users also utilize the “save for later” feature in carts in order to keep track of desired products
Define: Recommended Updates to the Wish List
Based on research findings, the following updates were recommended to project stakeholders:
Ideate: User Flows
User Flows:
With the project management, tech and stakeholder teams aligned on the updates to be made to the My Favorites experience, I began to outline the key user task flows. This helped me visualize the new user flows and when key system feedback should alert the user of their successful actions.
Wireframes: Sketches
Initial Sketches:
As a first step, I sketched out a few examples of how the Product Listing Page (PLP), Product Detail Page (PDP), and My Favorites page might look in the future iteration of the My Favorites experience. I started with sketching for mobile since this is where a majority of Camping World’s traffic comes from.
Test: Evaluation and Iteration on High Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing with High Fidelity Prototype:
After narrowing down design options from my initial sketches, I moved into Sketch to create high fidelity screens of the new Favorite experience. Since the My Favorites update was a part of a broader redesign of Campingworld.com, I moved straight into high fidelity since there were established UI elements and patterns.
Usability Test Objectives:
Determine if users can save a product as a favorite from the PLP
Determine if users can save a product as a favorite from the PDP
Determine if users can edit a product saved to their Favorites
Determine if the content included in the My Favorites list meets the needs of users
Subject:
A high fidelity mobile prototype was used via the InVision App
Participants:
5 participants (men and women) between the ages of 30 and 65 who are camping enthusiasts
Methodology:
Unmoderated tests were run through Usertesting.com, with audio and video recording
Usability Test Affinity Map:
After reviewing the user tests, I compiled user statements and test feedback into an InVision Freehand board so that all project stakeholders could review the test results. Compiling the results into similar themed buckets helped show which parts of the experience were working well, and also what needed to be revised or reconsidered.
“It’s cool that the favorite icon shows the number and reminds me that something is in there.”
— User Testing Feedback
“It’s easy to edit an item within the favorites list, which is really nice.”
— User Testing Feedback
High Priority Updates to Prototype:
Based on user testing, the most critical update was to revise the modal options selector. When users saw this modal appear (after clicking the heart icon), they found it to be unexpected and confusing.
Due to technical and business needs, a user must make selections on a product (such as selecting a size and/or color) before they can save it to their Favorites. Therefore, we were not able to remove the modal entirely, but instead needed to compromise and make its purpose more clear to the user.
The Revised My Favorites Experience
Priority updates were made based on high fidelity prototype usability tests.
Future Iterations:
Based on what I learned from the competitive research, user testing and feedback, there are ways in which the My Favorites experience could be continually improved and revised in the future.
Allow users to create multiple lists within their Favorites (this is a current technical restraint, which is why it was not implemented in this phase)
Enable filtering of the list or a keyword search within the Favorites list
Provide similar product suggestions for Favorited products that are out of stock or unavailable
