BACK TO LIFE, BACK TO REALITY

PARAGON BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO SPORTS

Aldo Santa Inés
Aug 8, 2017 · 4 min read

The summer has not left us yet but the cool autumn breeze will soon be upon us. As the summer clock winds down and the freshly fallen leaves slowly hit the NYC streets moms, students, and athletes alike will be looking to return to their yearly programs. Stores like Paragon Sports, a staple in anything and everything athletic wear, will be there every step of the way to help them start the year strong and in style.

User Research

Card Sorting

I conducted 3 open and 3 closed card sorting exercises. With the initial products that were chosen, participants divided each item into sports, activity (ie. camping) or gender. The users that mainly used camping as a main category chose these categories based on previous purchases and store models. From this information I chose to reanalyze my initial products to see if I could broaden the categories that users were choosing and help them categorize the products in a less specific manner.

Some key takeaways from the card sorting were:

Marvin E. / 28, male / Open Sort

“I’m not going to Sports Authority and looking for things. The same applies to when I visit websites.

I would want to group things and make it easy to find. For example, if you go to Sports Authority they’re not gonna have stuff specifically for headphones. They typically divide things into activity or gender and then they have the products.”

James o. / 24, male / closed Sort

“From the provided items I would want them to be presented in a certain way which I am used to seeing in stores. I think that this way translates to a web presence. Maintaining a hierarchy of gender or sports based would be beneficial for shoppers that are trying to search or buy quickly.”

Field/Contextual Analysis

I visited the store a couple of times to pick out products and get a feel of their in-store shopping experience. Paragon has a concierge desk as soon as you walk into the store that can help you and point you in the right direction. Even though Paragon has a live chat option the functionality and real time use of this feature on a mobile screen isn’t great. I tried to mimic this initial connection by having the key options and categories on the home screens and readily accessible. While in the store i was able to interview a few employees, most notably was the concierge who had a few key points to make:

1.

“most of our clients will make purchases in the store. Or if they purchase online they are doing store pick ups”

2.

“our book bags are $100 so we are not selling out of those. most of the back to school items are for whatever sports season is starting up.”

3.

“We do sports. We have book bags but our back to school items are geared towards getting students and athletes prepared for their seasons.”

User Interview

Gonzalo / 59, Male / Gym teacher

I picked my cousin as a suitable interviewee candidate for two reasons:

  1. He is a gym teacher at a prestigious private school in the city where the majority of the parents shop at Paragon.
  2. He is a father of two teenage boys both of whom are heavily involved in sports.
  3. He is an avid Paragon shopper on a personal level. As a professional, the school provides everything that he needs

Key Insights:

Sports being played in the fall.

  1. men’s and women’s soccer.
  2. women volleyball
  3. cross country / running
  4. basketball
  5. football
  6. tennis
  7. field hockey

“Paragon doesn’t carry needs for school gym teachers but they carry everything else!”

Competitive Analysis

One of my initial steps was to take a look at Paragon’s closest competitors. In my analysis I was primarily looking for sites that had existing back to school features or shops on their web sites.

The stores that do have a back to school section distribute their merchandise by sale items and their existing sports categories. There is no differentiation in content to specify the sports by the fall season or by the scholastic calendar. There is cognitive overload through out the sites. Dick’s, who is the closest competitor, is the biggest offender in content overload. The site is very cluttered and there is no clear structure that our primary user is looking for.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

“Edda needs a simple platform that will help her find brands that are currently trending and use it to purchase back to school items for her two kids”

SOLUTION

  1. Create a mobile site that has clear options and categories
  2. include a brand oriented design that would place trending styles front and center
  3. Simplify the check out process and provide the pick up in store feature
  4. Extract the non fall sports and only have the upcoming activities on display
  5. Expand the Journal feature to include why brands are trending and updates on technology
Aldo Santa Inés

Written by

NYC based UX Designer + Project Manager

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