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Project Name: Shirts 4 Mike
Project: Critique a website
Client: Shirts 4 Mike
Project’s Problem and Context:
Shirts 4 Mike is an e-commerce site. This website displays a variety of T-shirts based around the character ‘Mike the Frog’ that can be purchased. Some of the T-shirts display wording and others logos. There is a contact page for queries and a page for each of the T-shirt designs with a choice of sizes. The critique was implemented in order to improve user experience and in turn, increase sales.
The Process:
The User
First, we have to consider the user, who they are and what they are thinking.The user for this particular website will be primarily web-developers, designers and students who have an association with the brand and an understanding of the character. The badges on ‘Mike the Frog’ on the front page displaying ‘css’, ‘art’ also give the impression that this is aimed at those in the tech industry. Due to the shape of the T-shirts on offer, it can be assumed that the main user in mind is male. Creating an empathy map enabled me to get a better understanding of the users needs by considering what they think, do, say and feel. An empathy map helps me to consider the users needs, general lifestyle habits and any pain points that they might encounter.
Empathy map: Techie Pete works hard in a small tech start-up. He lives in a small flat with his flatmate Jim. He works flexible hours but always goes the extra mile. He generally cycles to work and enjoys Friday night beers with his colleagues. There is a relaxed attitude to dress at his company so he tends to go for T-shirts and jeans as he doesn’t have to give this too much thought each morning. He likes to have a range of T-shirts on hand to choose from.
The Website:
I then went on to consider the design and functionality of the website. The website is predominantly orange which gives a sense of warmth, energy and enthusiasm. A great start. The clean lines and plenty of negative space allows for the products to stand out and be the focus here. It has a simple, easy to follow process for purchasing a t-shirt however, it has some areas that we could call pain points.
Outcome:
Looking at the primary users and the design and functionality of the site gives me an idea of areas that work well and pain points that users may find. Currently there are no filters for the products that Shirts4Mike sell. I would suggest that filtering by size, colour and price would increase the usability of the site and help the user to find what they are looking for quicker.
The checkout process, although easy to follow, could be improved. The cart icon does not change when something is added. A simple numerical increase here would give the user confidence that it has been added. Rather than sending the user straight to the payment page from their selection, routing them back to the product page with an acknowledgement of their item in the cart may increase sales by allowing the user to spot something else that they like.
This website is not responsive. It appears in the same way on tablets and mobiles and desktop. This is at a disadvantage to the users viewing in this way as it involves zooming in to view products in detail, zooming in to view the text and zooming in to be able to click on items/text boxes. Currently around 40% of e-commerce sales are made on mobile and this is predicted to increase, getting this right now would prevent users from being put off at the start.
Skills:
- Empathy Map
- Giving Feedback
Hannah Belshaw 