Pottery Barn

Requirements

Pottery Barn usability research study. The research goals for this study included:

  • Ensure that users can readily find home furnishings for their living room (e.g., lamp, chair, rug)

  • Confirm that users understand information about these items to make the best selection for their needs.

  • Make sure that users can confidently begin the purchase process (i.e., add their selection to cart)

The client wanted to know:

  • How well the site is doing on the goals listed above

  • Recommendations for how to improve the experience both in the short term and in the long term. 

Script

Greeting/Introduction (1-2 mins) 

  • General Introductions 

Expectations (1-2 mins) 

  • Briefly go over the phases of the interview.

Demographics (2 mins) 

  • Name?

  • Location?

  • Age range?

  • Highest level of education?

  • Profession?

  • The class associated with?

  • Single / Partner?

  • Children?

  • Cultural/racial demographic 

  • Ability that will affect the viewing and searching process

Experience/Expertise (2 mins)

  • On a scale of 1-5 where 5 is the highest, what is your technology use/knowledge?

  • How often do you shop online? 

  • How confident are you with browsing, shopping, or other online shopping-related tasks? 

  • Which device(s) do you usually use for online shopping?

  • When was the last time you purchased an item?

Participant Activity (10-15 mins)

  • Send site link to the participant

  • Have them open the link and share their screen

  • Ask the participant to select a couch for their living room. 

  • Ask the participant to locate the information they need about the product and that they understand the information. 

  • Ask the participant to begin making their purchase of the product. 

  • Observe the participant and document their behaviors and expressions.

Followup (5 mins)

  • Have you used this product before?

  • Have you used a similar product (furniture site)? What site/product?

  • What stood out to you most when you first entered the site?

  • Why did you choose the product you did?

  • What was the easiest part of accessing the information you needed?

  • What was the hardest part about your process?

  • Was there anything surprising or unexpected about the site and your activity to locate and purchase the product?

  • What could be done to improve your search experience?

  • What did you like/dislike about the way it works?

Wrap Up (2 min)

  • Thank you.

User: Emily Norton

Emily is a Millennial and falls into the 25-35 age range. She is a Product Manager and lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with a roommate. Emily has her Bachelor of Science and considers herself middle/upper income. She identifies as White, European decent, and does not have an impediment that would create a challenge in viewing and using the Pottery Barn website.

Emily has a high level of technology literacy and use and shops online once a week. She is confident with browsing and shopping online. Her last online purchase was the prior weekend (10/2-10/3). Previous to the test, Emily had not been familiar with purchasing a product from the Pottery Barn website but had made purchases from Wayfair and Ikea.

 

Emily’s Experience

Emily was asked to select a couch she would like to purchase for her living room. She began her search by hovering over “Furniture” and selecting “Sofa & Sectional Collections” (first on the list) from the drop-down menu. She scrolled down the page to find what she wanted. During this time, Emily had a grin on her face and seemed to be interested and focused on what she was viewing. 

It appeared that Emily was having a difficult time making a decision to select a couch on the “Sofa & Sectional Collections”. She went back to the home page and typed “couch” in the search bar. On the page, Emily had 419 couches to select from. She opened the filters and checked the boxes to select the features she was looking for; namely, size and square arms. During this time, Emily continued to grin and appear interested and focused on finding what she wanted. 

Emily selected a couch from the York square collection but decided to go back and continue her search by using the filter list. Emily finalized her decision; a couch from the Big Sur collection and moved on to select the fabric she wanted for the couch.

Selecting the fabric appeared to be a challenge and Emily clicked on several choices before making a decision. When asked about this during the follow-up, Emily stated that she was confused by the organization of the fabric choices and found it difficult to understand the organizations and differences in the fabric styles. The information regarding the fabric style was provided when clicking the fabric selection, yet the information about the fabric was limited and the text was too small and hard to read. Emily did not use the fabric selection filter.

After Emily selected the fabric, she was ready to check out. Emily had no problem with this process and was able to check out fast and with ease.

Follow-Up Questions

Q. I noticed that when you first began, you chose to hover over “Furniture” and select “Sofa & Sectional Collections”. Why did you choose to make this your first step? 

  1. “Sofa & Sectional Collections” was the first thing Emily saw on the list and she thought it was going to take her to a page of couches. She did not realize that she’d be taken to a page that showed the various Pottery Barn couch collections. After scrolling down the page and viewing the different collections, she realized that she wanted to type the word “couch” into the search bar instead to find what she was looking for.

Q. Why did you choose the product you did?

  1. Emily wanted a couch that was the right size for her living room. She wanted a couch with wide square arms so that her cat can lay on the arm. When searching for a couch, Emily checked “square arm” in the filter but had a difficult time finding a couch with a square arm wide enough.

Q. What was the hardest part about your process?

  1. Selecting the fabric was difficult. Emily was confused by the organization. At first, she looked at the amount of time that an order will take based on the fabric. She saw that one group would take 12 weeks to deliver and decided to go to the other group of fabrics, assuming the delivery date would be faster. She realized that the second group would also take 12 weeks and became confused about the differences in the fabrics. 

The information about the fabric was limited and the text was small and difficult to read. She could order a swatch, but it did not say how long it’d take the swatch to arrive. She was concerned that if the couch would take 12 weeks to deliver, she didn’t want to have to wait longer for a swatch to arrive and then place the order.

Q. What could be done to improve your search experience?

  1. The filter can include other features to help find what a person is looking for. The site has a “small spaces” selection, but what does “small spaces” mean? It would have been helpful to be able to choose “wide arm”. 

  2. Reorganize the fabric section so it is easier to select the fabric you’re looking for. The needs to be more information about the fabric and the text needs to be larger and easier to see and read.

Key Takeaways: Goals


1. Ensure that users can readily find home furnishings for their living room.

This was achieved after a long search starting at “Sofa & Sectional Collections”, then going back home, typing “couch” in the search bar, and using the filter to locate the couch Emily was looking for. 


2. Confirm that users understand information about these items to make the best selection for their needs.

Emily was able to obtain the information she needed to find the couch she was looking for that best suited her needs, yet she struggled when trying to select the fabric because; 1. The extensive list of fabrics that were not properly organized. 2. Not noticing the “filters” for the fabric. 3. Not be provided with enough information about the fabric. 4. The information provided on the fabric was written in text size that was too small.


3. Make sure that users can confidently begin the purchase process (i.e., add their selection to cart)

There was no problem adding the couch to her cart and making the purchase. This was done in minimal time.

Opportunities for Improvement

  • Additional filters should be added to simplify the couch selection.

  • Need for better fabric organization to make the fabric selecting process easier.

  • The fabric filter button needs to be more obvious to the user. 

  • Provide more information about the fabric and increase the type for easier readability.

  • Need for shorter delivery time. 12 weeks is too long.