Sonia Song
Sonia Song
Sonia Song
How might we help customers to make better warranty decisions?
CONTEXT
Assurant is a global provider of risk management products and services. Assuarnat wants to define and design a best-in-class e-commerce sales user experience. We designed two e-commerce funnel for phone warranty extensions and home appliances warranty extensions.
I lead and design the user flow, information architect, and visual design.
Role: Lead UX Designer, Researcher
Methods & Tool: Interview, Survey, Competitive Analysis, Usability Studies, Affinity Diagram, Figma
Timeline: 4 months, Sep-Dec 2021
Context: Master Capstone Project with Assurant, Cornell University
PROBLEM
For home warranty customers, they might find it hard to get an efficient plan. Before choosing a plan, customers have to enter so much information. Sometimes, they just give up on purchasing. For the warranties company, these situations might lead low conversion rate and ultimately cause low profits.
How can we improve the conversion rate for the warranties company?
How might we help customers to make a better warranties decision?
SOLUTION
RESEARCH
Research Overview
Before I started my research, I first thought about what I want to find out from it. Then, I selected research methods according to the objectives.
3
Competitors Analyzed
To learn from successful competitors
75
Survey Responses
To learn from data & potential interviewees
5
In-person Interview
To understand users' thoughts and work process
Competitive Analysis: similar products already existed
To start with the research, we analyzed 3 direct competitors who share the largest market size) in the home-appliances-warranty industry (AHS, First American, Old Republic Home Protection).
We learned that:
1) The compositions on the landing page are similar: essential components are similar with validity.
2) The workflows of these websites are closely related to marketing strategies that might conflict with
user experience.
3) Comments & ratings are essential criteria to help customers make choices.
Survey: learning users behaviors from data
We conducted a survey to learn how people currently purchase and find their warranties. The ages of the surveyed are evenly distributed.
We learned that:
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People enjoyed the online purchasing experience due to Fast, efficient, flexibility: Easy to compare prices and save time.
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In the contrast, they dislike the experience due to ague area of coverage, endless possibilities with different prices, Limited stocks, not being 100% sure it is what they want, Returns policy
In-person Interview: Learn from users thoughts and work process
I wanted to learn more about the purchasing experience of home warranties, so we conducted 5 in-person interviews.
Here were some pain points I found from quotes:
Awards/ comments might lead the final purchase decision
too much steps to get the quote
Showing steps enables customers to keep track
Don't know how to make a decision
Price and efficiency of the service are two most important factors
Not clear about what service would gained
SYNTHESIS
User Journey Map
With findings in hand, I decided to map customers' frustrations to a user journey map. This map could bring pieces of collected information together and help me create more empathy and understanding about the pain points throughout the whole journey.
(Click to enlarge)
Key Insights
Current workflows of websites might conflict with customer goals
The most complaints about the workflow are that before checking the price, users need to provide a lot of personal information. It is likely that the companies use such workflow for marketing consideration: after receiving the user's personal information, it is possible to email their campaign. However, this step is too demanding for users.
Essential information should be delivered clearly
To our surprise, some customers are still not sure what can be covered in plans after purchasing. When browsing the information online, users can't always find all information they need like price and efficiency.
Others' comments and awards are influencial for customers to make decisions
Many users would make thier decision based on what others think.
Design Principles
rom the insights, I derived design principles that would set the direction of my design solution.
Optimized workflow for efficiency
Be informative
Consistent visual branding
Help them make decision
ideation
Designing an e-commerce experience required us to brainstorm not only the design but how we would introduce this new flow to users. We explored different solutions and sketched out the user flows. Then we discussed and decided on the most feasible solution for this new feature.
User Task Flows
Need personal information? Maybe later
We have decided that ask customers for personal information/create an account after the purchase, not before or during the purchase. They may opt-out at any time before they pay so that customers may not feel safe about providing private information when they are not ready to bond with the brand.
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Below are the low fidelity screens and the user journey for warranty purchase and online redemption from screen to screen.
2.
Compare Plans
3.
Add-on Coverage
4.
Personal Information
5.
Make A Payment
6.
Order Comfirmation
Marketing & Service Summary
1.
Home page
What We Cover
Protection plan
FAQs
Reviews
uSER TESTING + ITERATION
We believe conducting usability tests in an early stage is cheaper and more efficient. Thus, we tested the low-fidelity prototype to see if the user journey flow and interactions made sense before spending time moving them into high-fidelity.
1
Key Finding: People who have special appliances have unique coverage concerns
Initially, we chose three fixed plans to help users make their choice. One of them is the most popular and can be the plan we promote. However, some users would prefer a guarantee for specific appliances because those applications have exceptional value and sentiment in their homes.
Solution: We provide a build your own plan option for those who need it
2
Key Finding: Sometimes purchase decisions can't be made immediately
In our first iteration, we have a straightforward shopping process like the flow on the page.
However, through evaluation, we found that users sometimes want to go back to the main page or need more thinking time. Then they will choose to close the shopping process. In this case, their time on the previous selection is wasted. And it also reduces the likelihood of their purchase.
Solution: Provide Save For Later option
We provide a place to lighten a customer’s cognitive load, improve their overall experience and impression of the site/brand, and promote increased sales.
Choose A Plan
Add-On Item
Personal Info
Payment
Check the plan
3
Key Finding: People are calculating the price all the time while purchasing
Initially, we will show the price, including the price, tax, and total, only on the payment page. However, based on our usability testing, some participants said they felt unsafe when they could not see the price, and they had to calculate in mind. They will make a quicker and easier decision if the pricing is clear.
Add real-time prices to avoid any cognitive demand
Choose A Plan
Add-On Item
Personal Info
Payment
Check the plan
Benefits along with the plan
Live shopping cart
Email the plan option
= with live shopping cart
FINAL DESIGN
Our final design encompassed four main workflows, within the Assurant website. We add three main functions. Finally, throughout the scope of our project, we did explore and design a solution for home warranty users/potential customers. Thinking about original design requirements, we created a mechanism for customers to opt-in to Assurant's website.
Marketing & Service Summary
1
What we cover
2
Plans & Prices
3
How it works
4
Reviews
5
FAQ
6
Contact
7
Compare & Select Plan
Build your own Plan
Add-on Items
Personal Information
Finish purchasing
Make a payment
iMPACT & tAKEWAYS
We tested with about 30 participants and got some rough data about the product. In hi-fi prototype testing, 82% of participants want to use the product and there is 15% decrease in time spent from consideration to checkout.
Early stage product = more flexibilities but heavier workload
It was the very first time for me working as the only designer in a team. I was able to have more space and flexibilities to explore design options and user interactions but I also needed to mock up every single screen for development. Although it was tons of work, I practiced designing flows that are usually ignored in short-term school projects, such as on-boarding, shopping, and payment flows. I've gained a holistic view of a e-commerce web design in terms of end-to-end experience and product strategies.
