HOUSE2HOME is an e-commerce website that sells home decor items&accessories. Their products include prints, posters, photos, lighting, small furniture, and accessories. H2H is trying to create a “starter kit” for customers that just moved into a new home or apartment. The goal of this project is to provide a one-stop service for customers’ decor needs for their new place.
Owning the first apartment is one of the largest leaps into adulthood. It is exciting meanwhile nervous for most of the new graduates. For most of the new graduates, it might be the first time ever to have their own space. With limited personal belongings brought from the college dorm or students’ apartment, decoring their space is like a project starting from scratch. How to help people to have a better sense of home in the space “too empty to start”?
Though House2home wants to provide a one-stop-shopping experience for the customer. But we couldn't have everything. The challenge of this project is how to maximize the usefulness of the “starter kit” for the customers.
More than half of the participants in the survey expressed their concern about the budget. As for many other challenges in our life, budge is always the first thing that comes to our mind. The rest of the participants worried about the design.
They are not confident to design their space by themselves. Because they couldn’t have a vision of what all the things they bought looked like when put together.
“I knew I needed a few things, but it was hard to trying to stick to a budget.”
Sometimes these two problems cross each other. When some decor references recommend 10 things for one scene but the customer can only afford 4 to 5.
Useless design inspirations & references articles. Most of the resource is free, making them become the most accessible materials. At the same time, it is easy to get lost in a tremendous amount of information. And unfortunately, most of the pretty design scenes are not budget-friendly. Few customers will search for “low-cost design”. But will end up shopping among several websites or some of the pieces are no longer available.
“Usually, I get overwhelmed and end up not to buying anything.”
Name the places you need to shop
Craiglist, flea market, West Elm, regardless of the cost, the research process is already quite scary for most of the customers. Not to mention a lot of the pieces are no longer available.
Mislead designed scene from the merchandise. Some furniture brands will design a scene for the product photos. Usually, this scene is designed for one major product. Most of the accessories shown in the scene might be the photographer’s belongs. For the marketing of the product, the photos were taken in a spacious place. This action will blur the real scale of the items shown in the scenes. And causing misguidance for the customers. They might get something way bigger than expected.
“You don’t really know until you order them and see how they look in the space.”
Guess the size of the table
This dining table looks like a table for 3 to 4 seats in the product photo. Actually, it is a 48” diameter wide table, which is big enough for 6 seats. The arrangement of the space, size of the vases makes the table looks much smaller than the true size. Though the actual dimensions are available in the product details. A lot of customers will use the product photo as the main reference. Because the visual material plays a vital fact during the shopping experience.
"A picture is worth a thousand words". Let the customer see what it looks like before they purchase.
Help customers manage their budget. Show an in-time update of how much users will cost during shopping. Users don’t need to check their shopping cart to have a final number.
These real-life scenes are designed by interior designers using House2home products. The size and space types are from customer surveys. We will keep updating the scenes according to our periodical questionnaire and market analysis.
“I know the “look” I want...I just don’t know really know what products to buy to pull it off.”
Step into the customer’s shoes and prioritized what is needed. Instead of room type, space type gives more opportunities for a small unit. A bedroom design might not suitable for a studio tenant, but an entryway design could be a good fit.
Every designed scene has a price range. From the least spend to achieve the design to the price for all. This design maximizes the availability of each design scene. Gives customers better budget management.
From the minimum spend to the whole scene, customers could have a preview. No more “I don’t know what these items look like together”.
“I don’t have a huge budget, so I want the stuff I buy to make the most impact in giving my apartment the look and feel I want.”
Is the designed scene helped the user's room decor?
Is the shopping user flow efficient and effective?
Problems find:
Half participants spend a while figuring out how the preview function works.
During the first user test, 2 out of 5 participants had trouble figuring out the preview function. To optimize the usability of this feature, I changed the first sight from showing all products to the necessary products. This adjustment made a significant improvement in the second user test. All 5 participants had no problem using the preview feature, and they all loved it.
Before
After
1. Emphasis on the must-have product.
2. Checkmark better indicate the “select and preview” feature.
3. Add an explanation.
Down-to-earth design is the key. Design something that the customer could relate to their life. Not fancy but useless pictures. That’s the start of a convincible design.