Paragon Sports Back to school Pop-up website

Nattakarn Osborne
Aug 8, 2017 · 5 min read

Time passes very quickly; I can’t believe I just finished my 3rd project at General Assembly. This time I was assigned to design a clickable prototype of a pop-up extension of Paragon Sports. Under back-to-school concepts, we were given three personas. My design is base on my preferred personas, and my website navigation was designed base on IA heuristic. It was not easy to make a thoughtful decision while working independently. It has been very stressful for the last couple weeks.
I started my research process on the brand analysis and its competitors. I pick three opponents as Modell’s sporting goods, Dick’s sporting good, and Uniqlo. These three brands have a significant footprint in NYC selling sporting products but it less specialty like Paragon sports. I compared their websites and came up with some summary.
Uniqlo a global company and have multiplication around the world, have a good strategy, for example, its Global Ambassador Program which sponsors world-class athletes like Novak Djokovic, their website is responsive and they have native mobile application. Even I did not see feet like a direct competitor, but they check out flow are very simple and less frustrated. On the other hand, back to the Modell ‘s navigation is not consistent. Category seems approaching a team apparel, Major leagues like NFL, NBA, MLB, etc. Dick’s also has fan shop and back to school but it more appealing

Comeback to Paragon Sports, the company strengths is the selection of high-quality brand, dependable and great customer service. There are reviews about the store which said, “Paragon is best all in one sports store, they cover more sports than models and other sporting good stores.”
I went to the location to observed the store, customer, and collected 100 items to put on the list of a new website. Also, I talked to the on floor manager and asked about their customer shopping in general. I asked if they have any back-to-school promotion. The manager then said they did not have a promotion, but they usually sell backpack and jacket during those months. That how I come up with my goal and problem statement.

Goal

The new back to school website will help a business increase its sell and convenience for customers who can’t find a product they need in the store.
Problem Statement
Paragon Sports currently don’t have a back to school promotion. The company has an existing website, but there are massive selections on the website which can be overwhelming for customers who only want to shop for the school season.

Information Architecture, Sitemap, and Navigation

In this lesson, I learned about information architecture and how to labeling website and organize navigation through the web. To come up with product categories, I used card sorting method to help design the structure. I have five card sorts with people from a different background. Two of them are moms with preteen and teenage kids. Two women who are a college student and One man who usually not shopping a lot. The key take away from this research is they are like to group product by gender first before putting other things in the subcategory. The interesting point is to receive the best bargain they always look for sale section first.

Following is my site map

After the sitemap, I have to design a responsive website; I pick Edda a mother of 2 teenagers as my primary user. Her scenario is she usually shops in the store and this year she needs to purchase a new jacket for her daughter. However, they don’t have the size and color that she is looking for. So the store manager recommends her to order the item online. Since the website has a smaller selection, it is simpler for her to find the product she needs.

Here is a mobile version for my prototype: https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/A5CW4O5FV#/screens/247025174_M_-_Home_Screen

There are few iterations I have a long with user testing such as the alignment in hamburger menu, Login, and checkout process.

Next Step

I want to work more on a social login feature and share to social network. I did mention in my presentation that it is possible to create a native app. However, my instructor brought a solid point about us as a UX designer should think about cost and budget and why the responsive is working. I had a great learning experience so far even if we have a lot of challenges. I am still happy to be in this class at General Assembly.

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