User Research

Why a gaming subsite?

The video game industry brings in more revenue than the global movie and North American sports industries combined.

Once lockdown measures were put in place Global Gaming Sales rose about 20% — reaching at $175 billion in 2020 and by 2023 its expected to exceed to $217 billion.

We felt that a subsite focusing solely on Dell’s gaming products would not only benefit their company but also create a more all-inclusive e-commerce shopping experience for their gaming audience.

Research Objectives

Once we determined which direction we wanted to head into we discussed some research objectives.

A few of the KPIs we wanted to focus on during testing were…

With those in mind we moved into analyzing the current Dell website.

Heuristic Analysis

We analyzed the Dell website to determine what worked and what did not so we could improve aesthetics and accessibility. For this we conducted a heuristic and accessibility evaluation.

Survey Data

I conducted a survey to help gauge the user behavior of Gamers and their game shopping habits.

User Interview Insights

I interviewed 3 users who were all heavily involved in gaming and determined that our users care most about having a simple shopping and checkout process that also allows them to compare specs and pricing.

After interviewing and analyzing the survey data, we used our findings to create an empathy map in order to define and gain a better understand of our user.

Empathy Map

As a team, we synthesized our findings from our interviews and survey responses into an empathy map to capture and gain a deeper insight into our users.

Competitor Analysis Overview

We conducted a SWOT analysis on a few of Dells direct and indirect competitors to get a deeper understanding of the competition as well as identify growth opportunities for DellGaming.

We analyzed Sony, Amazon, IBM, and Apple. Below is the SWOT we created for Apple.

Information Architecture

Card Sorting

As expressed by users, the current dell website is confusing, especially when looking for gaming products.

We began the process of card sorting to better understand how to structure the website in a user friendly way and that made the most sense for the gaming microsite.

Site Map

We then used our categorizations from the card sorting to create a new site map.

Top Feature Must Haves:

• Simplified website.
• A focus on game related products and content.
• Less pages for faster development.
• Easy maintenance which will make the microsite cost efficient.

Prototyping

Style Guide

UI STYLE DIRECTION:

We first researched the main style guide for Dell as a company to create a cohesive style guide that capitalizes on Dells established style but also brings in new elements of the gaming feel.

We finalized details for typography, button states, icons, and more. These guidelines were applied to the desktop and mobile prototypes.

Midfi Desktop Wireframes

Once the style guide was established we created mid fidelity wireframes.

In our mid-fidelity prototype, we resolved the user’s pain points from the lo-fi testing, aiming to make experience more intuitive. Below are a few frames from the mid-fi prototype.

Midfi Mobile Wireframes

Along with the style guide being applied, mobile prototype was created as well to create a responsive design.

Midfi Usability Testing

In this iteration of testing, we tested the same 4 flows as the previous testing and found that the only task with 100% success was creating an account.

Unfortunately, there were some glitches with Figma that interfered with this testing round, like interactions not working even though they were prototyped correctly.

We took that into consideration and had users tell us what they would do and how they would choose to navigate if the prototype was fully functioning.

Main Takeaways:

• Users had a hard time finding the “build your own pc system” tab and also found the naming of that feature confusing - users weren’t sure if they were customizing a laptop or assembling a group of items.
• User would like to be able to review order before completing order.
• Users thought the site overall could be cleaner layout wise.

Final Thoughts

Our site is a more streamlined version of a Dell’s gaming product site - keeping their branding and functionality but adding those gaming site components. We drew inspiration from sites like Playstation & EA.

With the feedback from our users we were able to build something that is easy for users to navigate and gave the site more gaming character than the original Dell gaming section.

WHAT’S NEXT

Whats are the next steps, we will continue to test and iterate the current design to improve interactions and experience for the users, Add more complex animations, resize some items