An Evaluation of Paragon Sports
…designing a proposed navigation through Information Architecture.
Danielle Petriello
Since 1908, Paragon Sporting Goods has been selling specialty sports equipment and clothing for athletic activities ranging from cycling to snowboarding. Located on 18th Street and Broadway in New York City, Paragon Sports takes pride in showcasing products from the brands you know and love as well as unique and exceptional brands that you may not be familiar with yet.
Currently, their website contains pretty good visuals and seems to function properly allowing customers to purchase their goods online with minor frustrations. However, when I went and assessed the usability and functionality of their website, I found some issues and room for improvement to help make the user experience more valuable and of higher quality.
Through the research process, I conducted a vary of evaluations and tests to understand Paragon Sporting Goods website, which include the following:
1. Heuristic Evaluation
2. Business Model Canvas
3. Competitive & Comparative Feature Analysis
4. User Flow
5. Card Sorting & Synthesizing Data
6. Original & Revised Sitemap
7. Hi-Fi Mockups of Redesigned Navigation
8. Clickable Prototype
9. Usability Test on Redesigned Navigation
Heuristic Evaluation
Using the Abby Covert Method, I conducted an extensive analysis on Paragon’s website. This evaluation aids in problem solving, examines the interface, and determines its compliance. These evaluations help to identify usability problems. I conducted a heuristic evaluation to evaluate the usability of Paragon Sports website and predict the effectiveness of potential solutions. Using the Abby Method, I evaluated three pages: the home page, product page and check out page of Paragon Sports website.
Overall, I found that the Paragon Sporting Goods website seemed to have easy navigation through Home, Shop by Brand, and Footwear page. Paragon Sporting Goods site has minimal use of distracting photos, animations, pop-ups, ads and promos. They provide live human interaction with live chat available on the site at all times via desktop or mobile. The website provides multiple ways to get to any product, from primary navigation, secondary navigation and internal search bar. Paragon also included images and texts that are consistent and not too overwhelming. They have social media to connect with users and links available on their site. Paragon also provides faceted navigation to help users have control and find what they are looking for.
While Paragon Sporting Goods website mostly scores in the excellent area and gets the job done, there remains a few sectors where they can use some help in. Although breadcrumbs and filters are available to provide further assistance with navigation, they contain ambiguous terms which do not allow users to know where they are or where they want to go. There can be more filtering options on the faceted navigation with more exit options for the user while also providing bigger text and imagery on the Shop by Brand page to make more memorable. Overall, Paragon Sporting Goods website scores more excellent than failed.
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool to quickly convey and easily determine a business idea or concept. It is a document which works through the fundamental components of a business, or product, structuring an idea in a coherent way.
I used the Business Model Canvas to get an understanding of Paragon Sporting Goods. It allowed me to go through the process of making connections between what business ideas are and how to establish the idea into a business. The Business Model Canvas allowed me to see what kind of customer decisions are important and effective to the use of Paragon Sports.
To start, I filled in the ‘Value Proposition’ box, continuing to ‘Customer Relationships’ and then ‘Customer Segments.’ Following, I connected the building blocks and checked if every ‘Customer Segment’ is linked to a “Value Proposition’ and ‘Revenue Stream.’
Through this process, I gained that Paragon Sporting Goods is sports equipment and clothing store based in New York City that also has a website for people who want to purchase their goods online. Since it is not a large retail store, it would cost relatively less than chain stores like REI, Dick’s, Modell’s, etc. Yet, because it isn’t that well known and only located in New York area, it remains in competition with bigger stores like REI, Dick’s and Modell’s. Paragon Sports does have a great customer relationship which includes special events, trips and clubs, but they will need more advertising, deals and more social media platforms to keep up with its competitors.
Competitive & Comparative Feature Analysis
Competitors:
- Your direct competitors are companies who sell or market the same products as your business.
- A thorough understanding of your product and the value it provides to your audience or customers is crucial to identifying your direct competition.
Comparators:
- An audit/review of websites and apps that perform similar actions, but are not competitors.
For the Competitive & Comparators Feature Analysis I researched sites/products that are competing for the same dollars and solving the same problem space. I visited both, REI & Dick’s Sporting Goods, sites/apps and conducted a few key activities as Paragon’s competitors. I tracked the similarity and differences of features along the way as well with Paragon’s comparator, Best Buy. I chose Best Buy for the comparator for ideas on how unrelated products could be shown in a different way.
After conducting the competitive and comparative feature analysis, I found that Paragon Sporting Goods website happened to have somewhat more consistency in features than what I had observed from Dick’s and Best Buy. However, Paragon Sports did not have features like ‘Comparing Items’ for products and ‘Item Reviews and Ratings’ for products as REI did. Comparing items and having item reviews & ratings are an important feature to users where they can compare pricing for products, see how well the product works/is designed, and how other customers perceived the product from the site.
User Flow
A User Flow is the path taken by a prototypical user on a website or app to complete a task. The user flow takes them from their entry point through a set of steps towards a successful outcome and final action, such as purchasing a product. It is a diagram that visualizes user movement through a set of processes or screens. User Flows are used to more easily see what happens when a user doesn’t follow the “happy path.” As designers, we can surface situations that lead to alternate paths and better account for them.
Below is the user flow I created for a user purchasing a product at paragonsports.com:
Card Sorting
Card Sorting is a method used in UX Design to help design or evaluate the information architecture of a site. It is a technique in which a person tests a group of participants organize topics into categories that make sense to them and group them accordingly. It is a useful approach for designing information architecture, workflows, menu structure, or web site navigation paths. The benefits of card sorting are that they are quick to execute, easy and cheap, provide good insights, provides a good foundation and involves users.
There are two types of techniques: open and closed. For this project, I conducted a series of 6 tests: 3 open card sorting and 3 closed card sorting.
Following the card sorting, I needed to analyze the data and see what trends were forming. To do this, I created two standardization grids; one for open card sorting and one for closed card sorting.
Findings from the Opening Card Sorting:
- 3 / 3 users did know know what “HRM” stood for or meant.
- 2 / 3 users used “Sports” to label a group.
- 3 /3 users used “Fitness” or “Exercise” to label a group.
- 2 /3 used “Men” and “Women” labels.
- 2 /3 users placed “Casual” in outlier group due to not knowing what it meant.
- 2 /3 users did not know what “Brands A — Z” meant.
- 1 / 3 users placed “Gear” items in group labeled “Accessories” while the other 2 users places those types of items in groups labeled “Outlier” or “Brands” due to not having clear enough terms.
- 3 /3 users placed “Clothing for her/him” under “Women/Men” as the first option.
- 1 /3 users said “Team Sports” should have “Sport Names” or “Sport Teams” in category to be more specific.
Suggestions for Improvement:
- Keep “Men,” “Women,” “Kids,” “Footwear,” and “Sale” categories.
- Change Gear to “Gear & Accessories”
- Rewrite “Watches/HRM” to “Heart Rate Monitor Watches”
- Rewrite “Casual” to “Relaxed Fit” under “Footwear” category.
- Divide “Activities” into 2 separate categories: “Sports” and “Fitness & Exercise”
- Remove “Fitness” from new category “Fitness & Exercise” and listed the subcategory drop down fitness activities to secondary navigation.
- Change “New” to “New Arrivals” and “Brands” to “Shop by Brand”
- Rearrange the order of secondary navigation by putting “Clothing” first under “Men” and “Women”
- Remove “Team Sports” and have sport names from subcategory drop down listed instead.
Findings from the Opening Card Sorting:
- 3 / 3 users understood “Kids” category and sorted cards under it the same way as website.
- 2 / 3 users sorted “Men” and “Women” categories in the same way.
- 2 /3 users sorted “Footwear for Him” and “Footwear for Her” under “Footwear” category.
- 2 /3 users placed “Hydration” in outlier group.
- 3 / 3 users did not understand “Waterproof” and placed under the wrong categories.
- 2 / 3 users did not understand “Casual” and placed under the wrong categories.
- 3 / 3 users did not understand “Recreation” and placed under the “Activities” category instead of “Gear.”
Suggestions for Improvement:
- Keep “Men,” “Women,” “Kids,” and “Footwear” categories.
- Remove “Sale” category from primary navigation since Paragon has “Shop the Sale” directly below primary as a fixed header.
- Rewrite “Hydration” to “Water Bottles”
- Rewrite “Waterproof” to “Umbrellas” and place it under “Gear & Accessories” since users can find “Rain Boots” and “Rain Jackets” under “Men,” “Women,” or “Footwear.”
- Rewrite “Casual” to “Relaxed Fit” under “Footwear” category.
- Rearrange the order of secondary navigation by putting “Clothing” first under “Men” and “Women”
- Add Sport Names from subcategory drop down listed under “Sports” category.
- Remove “Recreation” from “Gears & Accessories” and place under “Sports” category.
Site Maps
Sitemaps are a tool for visualizing how all the content in your system is related. It is a model of a website’s content designed to help both users and search engines navigate the site. It can be a hierarchical list of pages organized by topic, an organization chart, or a coded document. Hierarchy is the most common form of sitemaps that emphasizes the relationship between the pages. It represents the pages as a static and readily translates into navigation structure.
I have created both an original and revised sitemap of Paragon Sports website. The original site map is the existing website, including primary and secondary navigation where the revised sitemap reflects recommended changes based on the cord sorting data provided.
Hi-Fi Mockups of Redesigned Navigation
In manufacturing and design, a Mockup is a scale, or a full-sized model of a design or a device. Mockups can be used for design evaluation, teaching, demonstration, promotion, and other purposes. Mockups reflect the overall ambiance of the product including color schemes, layouts, typography, iconography, the visuals, and more. Mockups are intuitive to stakeholders, they allow for early revisions and reveal a realistic perspective.
For Paragon Sporting Goods website, I designed a total of ten screens with a new proposed navigation items that reflect and are connected to IA findings throughout this process.
Clickable Prototype
Usability Test & Report
Usability Testing is a method for observing how a user perceives something that is structured, focused, efficient, repeatable, and measurable. It is the most common technique to check how usable your interface is and allows us to evaluate a product by testing it on users. Usability Testing lets us observe behavior, discover expectations, understand motivations and discovery why problems are happening. It is also a cheap and easy way to receive actionable feedback.
Using the new proposed navigation, I conducted a usability test and testing report using the new primary and secondary navigation I designed which reflects recommended changes based on the cord sorting data provided.
Results: 3/3 users believe that the new suggested navigation could be more useful and provide a better user experience with more clear terms when exploring Paragon Sports website. All users understood the meaning of the terms on the new navigations and how it can be used to explore and purchase from Paragon Sports website.
Next Steps
Following this entire process, I would continue to conduct more rounds of usability testing with different scenarios and tasks to see if the proposed navigation and changes would make a better user experience.
Although this process was extremely tedious and time-consuming, I was able to see how information architecture is an imperative part of the UX process allowing the data to generate refinements and improvements.
