Data analytics

The extensive amount of OpinionLab feedback and App Store reviews shows that scheduling an appointment for (repair, pickup, service, or installation) is a huge issue. These are the statistics:
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• 64% of OpinionLab feedback between April 2018-2019 were negative
• 9% of the negative reviews pertained to scheduling an appointment
• A high amount of negative app store reviews (verified)
• App uninstalls (unverified)

Currently, the main access to the support flow is discovered by entering one of the four categories or the "see all categories". We were not clear where customers were having trouble discovering support, especially with the "What can we help you with?" text accompanying the category icons.

Understanding the user journey

In-store interviews from Best Buy employee's at the Northgate location and OpinionLab/App feedback helped me form a first-time user journey map. Since users have touch-points beyond our app, it is important to understand the context of when users download the app and how in-store Best Buy store employees are advertising the app.

Implications of an appointment button

Implications behind this solution will cause a costly new business problem. Implementing an appointment button would encourage users to schedule in-store appointments for easy-fix problems that could be solved by other fulfillment methods we offer such as our live chat. do-it-yourself, and call service options. In-store appointments are the most time-consuming and costly fulfillment method.

Conducting usability research

Working with researchers, we focused on observing users’ natural path and potential selection for how to get support including, but not limited to, their starting point(s), navigating the dashboard, etc.

​I designed three task-based scenarios for both known and unknown fulfillment methods using an unmoderated remote usability test (usertesting.com) and divided participants into two groups to see differences in expectations.​

Findings

The usability study allowed me to observe half of the users finding support through the product first and the other half through the support page. Continuing to leverage these two entry points is important to serve different user mental models.

​However, after onboarding, first-time users were sent directly to the products page. When there were no products associated with the account, users were confused about whether they had to register their items in order to schedule an appointment for it. When users can’t find what they’re looking for on the ‘My Products’ tab, they resort to the hamburger menu next

Design opportunities

1. Changing the support icon on the navigation bar. The usability study highlighted many users overlooking the support tab, which was the quickest way to receive support. When first-time users landed on an empty products page, they tried to add their product, look within the hamburger menu, or tap around the search, filter, sort menu.

2. Redirect first-time users to the support page after onboarding if they have no products associated with their account. After completing the onboarding flows, users struggled immensely with discovering support when they had no products associated with their Best Buy account. In order to solve this, we can direct them directly to the support page, which would be more useful for first-time users.

3. Remove the search, filter, sort menu when users have no products. If users have no products on their products page, there is no use for this feature. Some users were tapping on this menu when there were no products to search, filter, or sort from.

Removing the search, filter, sort menu

The one-click results that were shown earlier also showed that 16% of users were clicking on the search, filter, sort menu on the products page. This reinforces the results I observed fro the usability study I conducted very early on. By removing this feature, we will eliminate the probability that users will tap there to find support because it is not useful during this empty state.

Internship project takeaways

My internship allowed me to grow so much as a designer and develop a lens to flush out customer needs/behaviors/mindsets. I began to parse out which parts process I really enjoyed the most and learned an important lesson of how simple changes could lead to very impactful results. I will no longer feel the need to get caught up on making big changes to make me feel like I've accomplished something as a designer.

​I learned the importance of humility by being brave in trial and error. I took many design directions based on the usability study results. Some explorations didn't perform as predicted when doing one-click tests to validate my design decisions, which led me back to the drawing board and made me more confident in my next proposals.

During this time, I learned so much from every designer on the Home app and working with production and visual designers for the iconography work, our user researcher with using user testing platform and optimal workshop, as well as our copywriter for the support page language.

​I realized working in a big retail company with real stores adds so much complexity to design, and I'm glad I got to take part in building towards a more streamlined and connected omni-channel experience for Best Buy this summer.