UX Case Study — Redesigning the IKEA Website
IKEA website redesign : UX case study
This was my first group project during the immersive User Experience course at General Assembly.
The group was briefed on re-designing the IKEA website and producing an interactive, grey scale prototype. The design had to include a sample cross-section of 100 products that improved the e-commerce experience for IKEA in Australia.
For this project I worked in a group of 3 people. We produced an interactive prototype that matched the customer experience of an in-store purchase. Together, each team member worked on every aspect of the project, from discovery and research through to the development of the prototype.
Deliverables
As stated above, the group had to present an interactive prototype based on a sketched interface during a 30-minute group presentation showing the following:
- Documentation of the affinity mapping/user mental model, user flows, sketches, iterated designs and any other artefacts that were created.
- A problem statement.
- A solution statement.
- A statement on how the group iterated the design in response to user feedback.
About IKEA
Founded in 1943 in Älmhult, Sweden, IKEA is the world’s largest furniture retailer. Today IKEA serves more than 780 million customers through its 355 stores located in 29 countries. IKEA.com experiences 2.1 billion visits per year and 137 million visits to the catalogue and store apps, a number that is projected to grow as it continues to develop its digital touch points. For the financial year 2017, IKEA earned a total revenue of €34.1 billion (€32.9 BN in FY 16) and €2.5 billion in net profits.
The IKEA Concept starts with the idea of providing a range of home furnishing product that are affordable. It is achieved by combining function, quality, design and value with sustainability and the optimisation of the entire value chain, suppliers through to production and delivery.
IKEA Australia is a part of the IKEA Group that owns 264 stores in 24 countries. IKEA Australia is now under a single ownership structure, after the purchase of Cebas Pty Ltd the owner of two franchised IKEA stores in Perth and Adelaide. This purchase is said to enable the group to cut costs by merging systems and supply chains and removing duplication, improve the customer experience and unify e-commerce operations.
Little known fact: All room settings within IKEA are created to reflect how everyday Australians live. IKEA visits hundreds of homes each year to find out what frustrates people and what they love about their homes.
Analysis of the competitive landscape
A competitive analysis was conducted in order to see what potential rivals existed and what they were doing to achieve success. As there were no direct competitors that matched the unique IKEA concept, a list of companies that had similar traits were considered. This included: demographic size, a focus on sustainability, large product range, low price point and store size.
The list was narrowed down to focus on three companies: Bunnings Warehouse, Kmart and Urban Ladder.
- Bunnings Warehouse is the leading retailer of home improvement and outdoor living products in Australia and New Zealand and a major supplier to project builders, commercial tradespeople and the housing industry. Bunnings has a similar quantity of products and price point. It operates from a network of 253 large warehouse stores, 77 smaller format stores, 33 trade centres and 3 frame and truss sites.They don’t offer online shopping but we drew inspiration to the layout of their global navigation. It aims to provide its customers with the widest range of home improvement products with the lowest prices, backed with the best service.
- Kmart is a retail chain that has more than 200 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Kmart’s vision, not too dissimilar to IKEA’s, is to provide families with everyday products at the lowest prices. This is achieved through high-volume sales, efficient operations, adaptable stores and sustainable practices. Kmart offers affordable online shopping and delivery service, including click and collect. The website has a well thought out information architecture and an intuitive smart search.
- Urban ladder is a furniture retailer based out of Bengaluru, India. Urban Ladder currently has 6 stores operating in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Pune and ships its products to more than 75 cities across India through its website. Their website experience provides easy to follow instructions when purchasing and filtering of products. They offer a broad range of other services tailored for the Indian market that include delivery and assembly of furniture as well as as an option to try furniture before purchase.
User research
In-store
The first step was to visit an IKEA store in Richmond at different times of the day to gain a variety of perspectives. Navigation through the store is easy and one directional with blue signs throughout the store that tell you where you’ve come from, where you’re going and where the shortcuts are and there are also arrows on the floor that show you which way to go. Each area is categorised by room, displaying different products and enticing customers to purchase products through displays of model rooms as well as displaying the larger product range.
The main observation from the in-store visit was that people enjoyed the tactile experience in IKEA, opening cupboards, sitting on sofas and laying on beds.
Contextual Inquiries — Testing the current website
After interviewing and observing 8 users navigate the IKEA website with a specific task to complete we found the following patterns in the affinity mapping process.
Key findings
- No online shopping and delivery options for some states in Australia.
- A lack customisable delivery options in store. Next day delivery only.
- Confusion about The IKEA Family membership and what it has to offer.
- Searching for products is complex and confusing.
- Too many clicks to get to the checkout in states where online purchase is available.
- The shopping list is hard to find.
The Problem
The problem required a solution to address the lack of an unified e-commerce experience across all states in Australia while ensuring the customer can easily browse, purchase and have delivered all IKEA products and services online, in a convenient way that results in time-saving and increased customer satisfaction.
This required developing and integrating an e-commerce experience and redesigning the website, which allows people to experience IKEA digitally and brings the experience of discovering new products that they can bring into their home without having to visit the store.
A new membership solution named My IKEA was also introduced, which replaces IKEA Family and personalises the online shopping experience while also providing a clear understanding of all available benefits. It is aimed at establishing a strong personal bond between IKEA and individual customers.
Problem Statement and Solution
Problem Statement
IKEA does not currently have a unified digital experience across Australia that delivers an e-commerce solution that allows customers to easily browse and purchase products and services online in a convenient way that results in time saving.
Solution Statement
Creating a website experience that helps people with aspirations of having a home filled with great furniture that is cost effective and save time with the ability to shop online.
Create a membership solution that personalises the online shopping experience while also providing a clear understanding of all available benefits and establishing a strong personal bond between the IKEA brand the individual customers.
Provide a wide variety of easy shipping solutions for all Australian customers.
Paper prototyping
When sketching the prototypes we focused on improving the following:
- Refining the global navigation in order to reduce the doubling up of elements.
- Promoting a signup process for My IKEA — illustrating the benefits of the membership.
- Providing options for personalised customisation of products depending on users taste and living situation.
- Providing multiple delivery options in all states.
Paper prototype testing provided the following feedback regarding the popup for the membership:
- It had a negative effect and drove users away from the site. As a result a simplified sign-up process was introduced by bringing it to the attention of the user in small increments throughout the website.
- Users stated that they were more inclined to sign up if there was a monetary benefit attached to the membership. In response to this feedback, a small alert was created when the user hovered over the shopping list icon for free delivery on the first purchase.
The paper prototype was tested and iterated a further 3 times before producing a digital wire-frame.
Interactive Prototype
The prototype was an iteration on the IKEA website that introduced a simplified version of the current top navigation menu as well as the benefits of the membership in a clear way while also introducing a way for customers to make purchases online throughout Australia. The link to access the clickable prototype can be found here.
IKEA Next Steps & Beyond
- Provide an experience that learns and grows as your life changes: Learning from customer’s previous purchases and by understanding their lifestyle and preferences, create ‘smart’ suggestions that are contextual to the individual by utilising machine learning algorithms as well as a dedicated team.
- Provide ‘inspiration’ that is related to the customer, tying in with the new personalised experience.
- Continually improve and grow data security to keep customer information safe and private.
- Partnering with Amazon in order to extend the IKEA marketplace for smaller items (candles, smart home appliances).
- Allow multiple people (family members) to have access to the same membership, which takes away individual sign up, and continues providing suggestions.
- Create a unified digital experience through the website and apps, that seamlessly transfers between desktop and/or laptop to tablet and mobile.
- Reduce the number of apps available to a single app that offers the following: provides an easy way to shop, create shopping lists, guide the customer through the store, provide store times, is linked to an up-to-date catalogue, provides help and tools to help the user build and create, and provide an augmented reality solution.
- Continue sustainability push, aim to be a completely green company.
Learnings
This project reaffirmed the value of collaborating with people from different professional backgrounds and life experiences and how leveraging those experiences adds to the ability of the group to deliver a wide array of solutions to a problem. With a background in business and a fondness for technology, I strove for the website to be more of an iterative design while looking at the real world possibilities and providing suggestions for the future.
Tools Used
Realtimeboard — for the Affinity Map
Adobe XD — for the creation of wireframes and the grey-scale prototype
My Teammates
Hello, my name is Adi Prabhakar. With 5 years working in multiple industries in marketing and management roles, I am now chasing my passion for technology through UX.
