The Philly Game Shop

 
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Optimizing Ecommerce in the age of Covid-19

Role: Solo Designer (Independent Project)

Timeline: 7 Days

Software: Photoshop, Sketch, Miro

Designers Note: Those of us who enjoy hobbies such as niche gaming have often been ridiculed at some point in our lives because of it. This is why many gaming stores, such as The Philly Game Shop, focus their energy on providing an inclusive and supportive social network. This is also why they need our support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

 
 

“It feels like they care about their product, but don’t know how to sell it”

  • I conducted four user interviews along with four more directed contextual inquiries.

  • Interview subjects were asked questions about the Navigation, User Interface, and complexity of the existing website.

  • The contextual group was asked to compare and contrast their shopping experience to that of a website they frequent.

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The Key Takeaways

  • The quantity of categories as well as their organization was felt to be overwhelming.

  • Some categories felt misleading.

  • Users found text-heavy or text-first pages cumbersome or annoying.

  • Users felt the navigation did not conform to industry standards. “Things weren’t where they should be”

  • The simple layout and playful Iconography was well received. Users felt this added character or charm, but the execution seemed amateur.

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Defining the problem…

  • Julian wants to find some cool new tabletop games to share with his friends. He needs a better way to search for games on-line because the selection at his local store can seem overwhelming or disorganized.

…so I can define a better solution

  • Streamline the eCommerce section of the current website by updating the layout using standard practices of information architecture. 

  • Implement global site navigation and faceted shopping navigation to help users find their purchases more effectively

Redcap’s Corner

 

How did the competition do it?

  • Comparative and competitive analysis found that everyone had navigation complexity with the quantity of game categories.

  • Other online retailers had between 5 and 33 categories of games.

  • Each retailer categorized and prioritized games differently.

  • Faceted navigation was only used by Barnes & Noble to sort by price.

  • I attempted to narrow down the 33 existing categories listed on PhillyGameShop.com using card sorting, with limited success.

    • Four main categories were identified.

    • Test subjects could not effectively group most categories due to the specific nature of the subject matter - further research is recommended.

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Adding key flexibility for the user

  • The existing user flow has limited options while moving towards checkout. Each product the user wants to shop for requires them to start the process from the beginning.

  • The projected user flow should give the user more flexibility to shop related categories and products without starting over. This would save time and reduce clicks and search effort for users reviewing multiple products.

 

Putting pen to paper

Concepts included rough ideas for global navigation as well as how to implement a faceted product search while still keeping the “charming feel” that interview subjects liked. Key changes included designing a less overwhelming category search and rearranging the user interface to conform to more recognizable information architecture standards.

 
 
 
 

Wireframing + Prototyping

This clickable prototype was made in Sketch. It is limited in scope, but illustrates how a user would navigate through buying a board game from the “Board Games tab” in the global navigation and follow through to purchasing.

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Lessons Learned

Some issues encountered on the way demand more research. The most common factor in shopping for board games is the way in which they are categorized, often in too many different and overly specific categories.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I was unable to utilize gaming experts or do any in-store or in-person research. Going forward, these are the areas I would focus on to streamline the overabundance of categories.

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