Mau Loa Sweets
Enhancing the user experience
Mau Loa Sweets is an independently owned bakery based in Andover, Minnesota. They specialize in creating unique, customizable cookies for various events. They place high value on sustainability and sourcing organic and local ingredients for their cookies. In addition to their custom cookies, they offer decorating classes, pop-up events, and holiday pre-sale cookie orders.
MY ROLE
Usability Test Moderator
UX Researcher
UX Designer
METHODS
Heuristic Analysis
Usability Testing
Think-Aloud Protocol
Affinity Diagramming
Deliverables:
Findings and Recommendations Report
Project Background
Summary:
Our UX research team worked with Mau Loa Sweets to evaluate the usability of their website. I performed a heuristic analysis, using my findings to create an evaluation protocol. The focus of this project was on improving the custom and pre-sale cookie ordering processes and enhancing user navigation.
As a team of 3 UX researchers, we conducted usability tests and analyzed feedback to identify key pain points and opportunities. This culminated in a findings and recommendations report presented to the client, where I highlighted my key findings and proposed solutions.
Key Findings
Users were impressed by the artistry, and overall desired to order from Mau Loa Sweets.
Users were able to navigate the site and complete check out processes.
There were some key usability issues that impacted the user experience and caused some confusion.
Solution
I developed a findings and recommendations report addressing the key usability issues with suggested solutions.
The client received the report, and will use the information to make adjustments to improve the user experience.
The Problem
How can we improve the usability of the Mau Loa Sweets website to better serve its primary and secondary user groups?
Mau Loa Sweets approached us to evaluate the usability of their website. The goal was to attract and inform potential clients and increase cookie order sales. We discovered that the process was not as intuitive for users as the client intended.
Most users found it difficult to fill out the custom inquiry request form and locate important support information.
Mau Loa Sweets homepage
Entire custom cookie inquiry landing page captured in full from top (left) to bottom (right).
Understanding the Users
Target User Groups:
Mau Loa Sweets provides a highly personalized custom cookie ordering service for special life events. Clients looking for this service are often excited to order beautifully crafted cookies for a celebratory event in their lives.
Planning events can be a stressful process. Whether users land on Mau Loa Sweets through a Google search or word-of-mouth recommendation, they are expecting a high contact, collaborative, and seamless inquiry experience that will put them at ease.
Primary: Custom order clients
Looking for a personalized and seamless ordering process for their special event
Understand the time & expense that goes into making custom baked goods
Value the experience of collaborating with the maker
Value clarity and ease of use in the inquiry form
Secondary: Class attendees; pre-order & pop-up clients
Creatives looking to learn how to decorate their own creations
Value creative experiences and connecting with like-minded individuals
Classes can potentially convert this user group into custom order clients
Have no need for personalized experience, but value artistry and enjoying a treat
Evaluation
Heuristic Analysis:
Annotated screenshots from Mau Loa Sweets website describing the highest severity violation
Custom Cookie Inquiry form heuristic issues
Usability Testing:
In order to gain a better understanding of the website usability, we conducted a heuristic evaluation. This allowed us to identify tasks that should be the primary focus during the subsequent usability testing interviews.
To analyze our findings, we used a severity scale to rank these pain points in usability based on how crucial addressing these aspects should be when making changes to the website.
Heuristic violation severity scale
Key Findings:
Mau Loa Sweets succeeds in the basic usability and functionality of the various ordering processes.
There is some opportunity for growth in providing appropriate feedback to users when submitting the custom inquiry form.
Language and phrasing did not always align well to match concepts familiar to the user - particularly the “pre-sale” navigation label.
There is a lack of error prevention when filling out custom cookie and pre-sale ordering forms.
Using what we learned in the heuristic analysis and focusing on the client and research goals, we created a set of tasks to be evaluated during the usability interviews.
Research Goals:
To better understand the overall usability of the Mau Loa Sweets website.
Can the users identify the company values of Mau Loa Sweets.
Gain insights around any user pain points during the ordering process.
Identify opportunity areas of improvement for the overall usability of the Mau Loa Sweets website.
As a research team, we conducted 30-minute, remote, moderated, think-aloud usability testing with 9 users. These tests were guided around scenarios to provide context to the users as they performed our specific tasks laid out in our usability testing script.
This provided insights into how users were interacting with the site, as well as their general impressions and feelings about those interactions.
Findings
From a detailed usability evaluation, I identified both positive aspects and several key opportunity areas.
Positive Findings:
Users appreciated the imagery and aesthetic. They appreciated the craft and skill that was showcased and were inspired or order cookies.
Mau Loa Sweets' values was clearly conveyed to users.
Forms were completely functional. 9/9 users were able to navigate through the entire checkout process for the evaluated tasks.
Opportunity Areas:
Users had difficulty locating important information regarding the details of their custom order inquiry request. Relevant information was not in close proximity to the pertaining input in the form.
6/9 users did not feel confident that their inquiry was successfully submitted due to a fleeting confirmation message.
The homepage copy had a high text density, causing users to be less inclined to read through important information.
““If this was a high priority event I was planning, my confidence level would be low, my anxiety level would be high.””
Solution
Recommendations:
(2) The addition of a pop-out calendar when users select event date ensures Mau Loa Sweets does not receive orders that they cannot fulfill
Based on my synthesis of the highest priority opportunity areas, I proposed recommended solutions to improve the user experience. I included low-to-mid fidelity wireframes with annotations to help visualize the solutions.
Incorporate a calendar modal updated with unavailable dates to address the user difficulty in deciphering when they could place an order
Implement a pop-up confirmation modal that appears upon submission of the custom cookie inquiry form. This ensures that users can feel assured and confident that their request has been received.
Clarify terminology around “mood board” and the packaging options, providing examples of each to ensure users do not need to navigate away from the form.
Move relevant information closer to the pertinent input boxes to reduce user scrolling on the page to find the information they need to correctly fill out the form.
Reduce the amount of text on the homepage by adding additional pages to the site architecture; including “About” and “Contact Us”.
(3) Improving the layout of the homepage reduces user eye fatigue and increases the efficiency of use.
(1) Displaying a confirmation modal after inquiry submission greatly improves the visibility of system status to the user
Next Steps
High fidelity wireframes of the proposed solutions could be built out and tested in additional usability evaluations.
The additional, non-crucial usability issues could be evaluated further, resulting in more proposed wireframes.
The client has received the findings and recommendations report, and can make final decisions on what proposed solutions to incorporate into the website.
Key Learnings & Takeaways
Aligning a user’s perception of their web experience with the quality of product for a business is crucial to ensure users walk away feeling confident and complete with the interaction.
Diving into the intricacies of form functionality from a research perspective is a valuable tool to incorporate fluid and efficient forms in my future designs.
I experimented with a data repository style that worked for me, and evaluated how I can further develop this toolkit for future research.
As a research team, we practiced group data synthesis (affinity diagramming) and managing different data collection styles, categorization opinions, and insights.