Spectrum’s primary goal is to be the best white-label solution for our clients. A brand’s e-comm site (and user experience) is a critically important touch point, so we work to ensure user’s full confidence by providing a seamless site experience. Extensive testing and ongoing optimizations with our clients has resulted in best-in-class customization interfaces that ensure users never realize a third party is involved.
HOW WE DO IT
Within our Spectrum Connect capabilities, formal user-testing is a key component in our process, providing innumerable short and long-term advantages. Testing parameters vary from client to client, but generally our user testing includes:
- Remote unmoderated user-testing
- Annual testing for existing clients, more frequently for newer programs
- Recruitment for a minimum of 20 participants, with the following criteria:
- Age demographic that matches brand’s consumer profile
- Split between mobile and desktop users
- Have purchased specific product in last year
- Session times vary specific to the need (average is a 15-min session)
AREAS WE FOCUS ON
With new clients, our user experience team works collaboratively with their e-comm teams to set up the initial customization program. The end goal is to optimize the experience throughout each step in the user journey, with particular attention to:
- Overall quality and comfort of user navigation
- How users interact with 3D models
- Users’ ability to quickly understand customizable parts of the product
- Navigation preferences and expectations when users have finished their customized product (or “recipe”)
- “Add to Bag” process
- Observations for areas of hesitation, confusion or generally difficult interactions
- Overall value proposition for the user in customizing a product
For existing clients, user experience testing is a standard part of our annual QBRs, where we evaluate the previous 12 months of data and develop optimization recommendations. Our experience has shown custom product programs work best with constant optimization based on data, so we provide these evaluations as part of Spectrum’s overall service offerings. Regular feedback loops evolve and optimize our clients’ custom product programs. And while many of our recommendations are specific to that brand’s needs, we do provide recommendations influenced by successful initiatives with other clients.
SOME SAMPLE UX FINDINGS
Once our user-testing is complete, Spectrum synthesizes the data and provides recommendations to improve our client’s customization programs. Over the years, here are some findings and subsequent recommendations we’ve made to clients to optimize their custom product programs:
- Reorder custom options shown based on popularity, as well as eliminating ones that under-perform and replace with new options.
- Customization trends and data can influence changes to default product options
- Certain options can be “locked up” when data shows consistent patterns of usage (i.e. users selecting the same design on left and right headphones)
- Tips on improving the brand’s custom product landing pages
- Improved engagement when providing pre-defined images to serve as consumer inspiration and starting points
- Better results when the product customizer is in its own page vs. within a product detail page
- Users prefer actual font previews displayed in the options menu
- Insights for future marketing promotions based on custom product data, such as:
- Product customization trends for unpredicted holiday opportunities
- Custom product interactions by day of week, allowing opportunities to align with other marketing efforts
- Additional data points to gauge success of partnerships and cross-promotions
How people use the internet is constantly changing, so Spectrum invests time in constant improvement and optimization of our clients’ custom programs. Implementing regular user testing services and recommendations ensures our clients remain on trend and impactful.