Swing Kingdom
Create a user friendly and accessible website for parents & grandparents to shop for a playset. The current website is difficult
to navigate and lacks accessibility for part of the demographic.
For the shareholders, increasing engagement and quotes online using the new platform to sell while revamping the e-commerce part of the site.
Issues:
The user demographic was not correct and not accounted for.
The navigation of the site is confusing and lacks organization.
The site is not WCAG compliant with the font weights, sizes, and color contrast.
Research:
Spearheaded the audit to find out what the current issues were concerning the website. Asked questions about the type of customers they encounter and looked demographic data. Interviewed and watched several users interact with the website (those that fit the demographic) to gauge the user issue navigating and overall use of the site.
Direction change:
Changed our strategy with the mockup of the website to match the user needs. I created a Journey Map to outline the needs. Our shareholders also wanted the project completed in 1 month. My Director of Marketing and I were able to come to an agreement with the shareholders by making a temporary change in the current website's branding until the prototypes are tested/approved and coding is completed.
Research
Client
Swing Kingdom
Year
2022
Tara Clevenstine
Vincent Reedy
Customer Journey
Discovery
Why do they even start the journey?
Actions
Raising mentally & physically healthy kids.
Add a playset for their kids or grandkids to use.
Customers looking for quality sets, safe sets, and something that fits their budget.
Needs & Pains
Quality at a great price point and within a budget.
Need healthy activities for their kids/grandkids.
Avoid choice overload concerning different types of playsets.
Certified safe playsets that protects kids from injuries.
Touch Point
The e-com part of the site with listed items with photos.
Design Center: an app so the customer to build/design their own playsets and get a quote.
Opportunities: New navigation system that gives customers autonomy in movement. E.g. Design patterns like breadcrumbs, search bars, and better navigation layouts increase customer usability.
Registration
Why would they trust us?
actions
Reviews & Testimonies
Quick information e.g. pricing
Find the value of products or pricing
Needs & pains
Build a quote
View products & pricing
Easy to navigate the website to find the information and pricing they want
Touch Point
Testimonies
Convey the value vs. cheaper products
Present the safety features & certification of these playsets.
Attentive customer service
Opportunities: Our layout of the Design Center, Dealer locations, and general product information will help customers to create/design their own swingset, visit a dealer to sets in person, or understand the product through better layout/usability.
Onboarding & first use
How can they feel successful?
actions
Easy to find information sections/nav
Price checking - we want a starting price
Easy to use tolls to get a quote
Convey the value vs. cheaper products
Set up an appointment for in-person shopping
Needs & pains
Price comparison
Price heavy without the quality & value
Easy to find information
Information buried in pages—>breadcrumbs menu?
Touch Point
Design Center
Brochures & Image Gallery
Customer Service
Safety Ranking
Opportunities: All about giving the user autonomy through through their search. Clear & defined sections using Gestalt grouping methods for better relationships between elements & design patterns that take customer dirextly to what they want.
sharing
Why would they invite others?
Product value vs. cheaper models
Safe playset equipment
FAQs page
Testimonies & Review
Build their own quote using Design Center Tool
actions
Needs & pains
Easy Process & installation
Worth the value
Straight forward information that’s easy to access & find
Touch Point
Raving fan customer service
Design Center
Customer Service
Installation
Outcome: They will share the experiences with other customers because of how easy the process was in their search and purchase of a swingset.
The Challenge
To create opportunities for customers to find the information they need to make an informed decision before buying a playset. The critical pieces of the website are not on full display for better navigation like the Design Center. The Design Center allows a customer to custom build their playset and get a quote. The Design Center carries many quote requests and should be prominent in its location.
The website layout needs to use design patterns to navigate the customer through the site, e.g., a visible search bar to give customers better autonomy over their search or better groupings of elements (Gestalt principles) to draw attention.
Customer Persona
The majority of our customers are female, using data collected from the current customer lists and Google Analytics. It was ideal to have this demographic participate in the research to build a better understanding of the audience (needs & tasks). What was surprising is other users are grandparents, specifically grandmothers buying playsets for grandkids. To be honest, it was an assumption. Due to this information, I pivoted and interviewed a grandmother to get a better picture of the user needs & tasks. I watched her navigate the website.
Background Information
Name: Olivia
Age: 34
Occupation: Mom of four kids | Mom Influencer
Location: La Plata, MD
Needs: Wants to purchase a quality playset but more websites don’t list price or it’s difficult to find the information to make a decision. She doesn’t want to call. She wants to find the information fast to compare with other companies out there.
How Might we…
Better educate and show our value to customers about our products and offerings?
Make the customer journey easy?
How might we make the Design Center app at the forefront?
How might we create value?
How might we help customers to know our brands?
How might we make this site accessible for all users?
goals & Needs
Goals
More user centric experience.
Easy access to helpful tools like the Design Center app tool an brochures downloads.
Business-side: Capture leads and better sales funnel.
Needs
Better navigation through the site.
Search options in the forefront of the website.
Educate customer based on price, value, & quality.
Observations & Tasks
Observations
Customers get stuck looking for a search bar because it’s hidden.
Customers are looking for education to better make a decision.
They must call to get pricing & information.
Tasks
Find answers to questions about the product, sizing, and materials, plus safety features and budget friendly.
Easy to navigate/find sources without a lot searching and a way to get a rough estimate of cost.
Experience Solutions
Create better navigation & search options using better Design Patterns.
Create areas to educate the customer about the product’s value and safety.
Make the Design Center a focal point to draw in more leads &. for customers to design their own playsets.
Adding proper heuristic to let the customer know when a form is received.
The site needs to be WCAG compliant for better accessibility i.e font weight and size.
Swing Kingdom MOCKUP
NEW PERSPECTIVE
I made several recommendations for changes to the layout of the website. The current page does not have any buttons to navigate the customer to the core parts of the website. Adding buttons and valuable content in the forefront will help users locate the information they need faster.
Making the design tool the featured product is essential. This design app is how customers interact with the company the most, and it's the number one source of leads for sales.
Navigation is an enormous change. The current one creates cognitive overload. Changing the navigation links will free up visual space, make the content digestible, and utilizes design patterns to keep the customer engaged.
After tests, a few elements need to be added, like a search box. Users are less likely to add their email this early, so the email component will move. Overall, users moved faster through this than the older site.
COMMERCIAL PRODUCT PAGES
Finished Result
A user centric friendly website for parents & grandparents to shop for a playset.
The website is better to navigate and now follows WCAG accessibility standards.
Increasing quotes by adding the Design Tool as the featured product. It also in area where it’s easily accessed and easier to complete the task of building
a quote.
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![Product page top]()
Product page top
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![Mid Page Product]()
Mid Page Product
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![Second Mid Page Product]()
Second Mid Page Product
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![Swing Kingdom Footer]()
Swing Kingdom Footer
