Evaluative Research:
Usability Testing - Desktop Platform

@ ZARA Clothing

During my UXR graduate studies, I conducted a passion project to improve ZARA's desktop shopping experience. Usability testing uncovered key navigation and functionality issues. These findings led to targeted recommendations that enhanced a seamless shopping journey and improved customer satisfaction.

Background & Goals

ZARA faced customer demand for an improved desktop platform, with Trustpilot reviews highlighting risks to its reputation. Researching recent feedback helped identify key areas impacting the shopping experience.

The key areas and goals were defined by these research questions:

Can users easily browse products by category?
Can users easily use filters to find products?
Can users easily use the search bar to find specific Zara items sitewide?

Challenges

3 Weeks Timeline + 0$ Budget!

Being scrappy doesn't always risk bad sampling. In order to eliminate bias in feedback during the interviews, I interviewed friends of a colleague & provided them with my friends to interview for their project.

This allowed to interview strangers representative of those primarily affected by the website flaws.

Secondary research of ZARA's consumer base via Statistica additionally supported the target demographic for interviewing: GENZ & Millennials

Methodology

10 Participants for 50 minute moderated in-depth interviews & activities
- Ages 18 - 30
- 4 Males
- 6 female
- Never shopped Zara online
- Interest in fashion
- U.S. Based

* 2 female interviews were pilots for session refinement

Crucial Insights TLDR:

Users experienced cognitive overload in 2 of 3 displays exploring item categories.
Users expressed confusion navigating the price filter.
Users struggled finding items with the search bar.
Users became frustrated after typing specific items in the searches bar.

The following clip is an example of my deep-dive presentation.

It is limited due to participant confidentiality.

For additional findings, contact sergiozuxr@outlook.com.

Insights In-depth:

Research Impact

Strategic Impact

Proposed research-backed improvements to enhance ZARA’s desktop shopping experience.
Provided clear justifications for changes to align with user needs.

Stakeholder Collaboration

Shared actionable recommendations with UI/UX designers to encourage collaboration.

Product Impact

Highlighted opportunities to increase transactions by improving navigation and reducing user frustration.
Suggested changes to make the platform more accessible to new users.
Mitigated navigational deficits that would significantly cause a decrease in customer satisfaction.

My Learnings

Prioritize Actionable Insights

Learned to narrow down 8+ hours of participant data into actionable and relevant insights for ZARA.

Enhance Moderator Skills

Adjusted my moderator guide to stay within time limits while improving my ability to observe expressions and ask deeper questions respectfully.

Refine Storytelling

Recognized the need to more effectively convey the consumer journey, ensuring insights are both structured and engaging for the audience.

INTERVIEWING PARTICIPANTS

Evaluative Research: Usability Testing - Desktop Platform

Evaluative Research:
Usability Testing - Desktop Platform