Three Goals to Optimize Your Web UX with — Three Stripes
The ultimate sneaker brand — Adidas
Rapid changes are happening around the corners; everything changes by the minute, even the second. Back then, we had limited access to the sneaker brands we could choose from, but now we have — way too many options!
With that being said, our standards and expectations of sneaker shopping skyrocketed compared to before. Any minor discomfort from the experience will make us hit that back, load, refresh without hesitation, or even… CLOSE TAB.
In the current sneaker market, it is competitive and saturated. I believe with technological advancement nowadays; a lot of industries are facing similar issues. Now, How can Adidas break through and sustain its position in the industry?
Well, a lot of it is the coherent message and the user experience they provide throughout their campaigns, both online and offline. According to this piece from Forbes, UX research helps brands stay competitive in an increasingly saturated market. Therefore, I want to dive deeper into their online user experience.
Take out your phone and laptop, and let’s look see how Adidas presents itself on Adidas.com.
Aesthetics & Organizational flow
Putting out beautiful content is easy to achieve; simply hire some graphic designers and whip up their best sketches. But we want to focus on being aesthetically pleasing and having an organized path where everything speaks in one language.
This is where every element intertwines with one another, forming a perfect harmony.
This includes font, color, icons, logos, images, background, borders, margin, and much more, and the list goes on and on. When you look at both mobile and desktop, two of the versions are nearly identical. On the one hand, the mobile version has a dropdown menu due to the limited screen of real estate; on the other hand, the desktop lays out the menu right at the top with no additional layers to run through. The experience for both was easy to navigate where a funnel-style path was implemented. It was also interactive and scannable; once you dive into the categories of sneakers, you get a full range of products with images and videos that you get to explore and scroll. Despite the minimal differences, both versions use the minimal black-and-white contrast to seamlessly connect, conveying the message of minimalism, superiority, and luxury.
Purpose & Story
Storytelling is a crucial element in a brand image.
Storytelling gives the brand identity and purpose for users to engage and experience. Supporting the idea with a Forbes paper on storytelling and sustained attention on advertisement. When browsing through both versions, it is nearly identical regarding the purpose of each page, each menu, and each tab. The overall message and brand images don’t fade away on any of the pages; you can tell that they are still directly linked through the design of the company image. A notable mention is that they manage to have dedicated pages for seasonal, sales, and company missions, but without cramming up the space and feeling like you are overwhelmed by the words or taglines. Words and stories are important, but only at the right time and place. Each page serves its own purpose, but they each stay in their respective territory, supporting each other rather than fighting for exposure.
Speed & Conversion
Nowadays, our attention is no more than 3 seconds, with the younger generation, such as Gen Z, having just 1.3 seconds of attention. Everything must work together to deliver the experience. The content needs to be eye-catching, the structure needs to be concise, and the access speed needs to be instant. This worked great, as the first thing you see is the large sneaker shot on both versions. I was instantly connected and would want to learn more.
On top of that, conversion is also a key factor in determining a purchase initiative. I believe this is the only minor tweak that Adidas can work on. When accessing the “in-stock function” and searching for nearby stores, both the desktop and mobile faced a significantly long wait. It seems like it had a problem connecting the inventory in the backend. No customer would wait more than 5 minutes like I did to test it out. I am confident that if it’s the average users, they would’ve left a long time ago. They either decide to purchase it somewhere else or even switch brands.
Ensuring every part works smoothly is the key to a successful user experience.
Positive user experience drives traffic to the site, traffic generates leads, and provides insights for future purposes. For businesses to achieve business objectives, building a correct online storefront as the first touchpoint for their customers is more important than ever in this fast-changing world!
