OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW: Seabikes is an e-commerce mobile app designed to increase conversion rates for online purchases of water bikes.

PROBLEM: Shopping for water bikes can be very difficult for a user today, because there is no single solution that enables users to learn about the sport in general, view available water bike models from multiple companies, browse water bikes by category, see technical specifications, pictures, videos, read reviews, and experience a simple checkout process. Choosing a water bike to purchase can be very time consuming and frustrating for a user today, often resulting in shopping cart abandonment.

SOLUTION: Seabikes was designed to make it simple to learn about the sport, browse water bikes by category, see pictures and videos, view the technical specifications, read reviews, and checkout seamlessly, all in one simple to use app.

RESEARCH

USER RESEARCH: Interviews and surveys were conducted in order to ask potential users questions regarding their knowledge about water biking, their experience with online purchasing, and what features and functionality they would like included in the solution. Based on the results, it was determined that the majority of potential users would be purchasing a water bike for the first time. Extensive product details including pictures, videos, specifications, and reviews would be needed for the users to feel comfortable about the online purchase.

70% of users have never been on a water bike.

90% of users would like to ride a water bike if given the opportunity.

5% of users know someone who has shown interest in purchasing a water bike, or have already purchased one.

90% of users said that they would feel comfortable purchasing a water bike online if the site provided extensive information about the product.

MARKET RESEARCH: A competitive analysis was completed to understand the competitive landscape, what worked, what did not work, and how Seabikes could differentiate itself. All research was documented and here were some of the key findings.

Older competitors such as Castle Craft provided extremely poor user experience with links not working, not enough product details, extremely cluttered content, requested a phone call to order, and the websites were not responsive and easy to view on a mobile device.

Several competitors were marketing water bikes to resorts instead of consumers.

Newer water bike startup companies such as Schiller and Manta5 were impressive with product details, reviews, and had simple checkout processes.

The newer startup companies did not let users shop by category or easily compare water bike models from various vendors.

My recommendation for Seabikes is to get a minimum viable product out quickly in order to capitalize on the growing market. Seabikes will be the first company to provide a single solution allowing users to evaluate water bikes from various vendors, and shop by category. The solution will need to have effective messaging, clear product descriptions, and have an intuitive navigation structure with a modern and responsive design. The solution will need to have enough product information to make first time water bike buyers feel confident during the checkout process.

STRATEGY

USER STORIES: Developed by analyzing every path that a new or returning user would take to complete certain tasks. User Stories were then prioritized to determine the minimum viable product. Here is a sample of the user stories.

USER PERSONAS: Personas were created based off of the user research results. The personas represented casual and professional users. Here is an example of a professional use case.

VISUAL DESIGN

BRANDING: The brand identity for Seabikes was developed from scratch, including the brand name, logo, typography, layout, color palette, and style guide. Through my initial brand exploration for Seabikes, I determined that “simple, trustworthy, and modern” should be the traits associated with the company. Extensive research verified that the most important visual feature on the app is the product details, including the specifications, pictures, and videos. The rest of the interface is designed to showcase those product details and minimize any frustrations or distractions. A single typeface was chosen to increase simplicity, though different shades were leveraged, along with a visual hierarchy to aid the users with reading the material on each display view very rapidly, without thinking. Early sketches, moodboards, list making, and mind mapping exercises are available upon request.

WIREFRAMES: Sketches and low-fidelity wireframes were created for early user testing, and then the high-fidelity wireframes were created to provide exact sizing of each element. Extensive user research was conducted to validate design decisions.

TESTING

RESULTS: Testing the interactive prototype provided insightful feedback and led to several iterations of the product. One example of important feedback we received was when a user complained about having to sign in before browsing products. The user felt discouraged and annoyed that he was being asked to do something before he even knew if he was interested. After receiving this feedback, the design was reworked to delay the Sign In/Sign Up process until checkout. On-going testing is being done to determine if this change is improving user experience and increasing conversion rates. User testing videos are available upon request.

CONCLUSION

SOLUTION: The water biking industry is rapidly growing and there is a great opportunity for Seabikes to capture market share quickly by providing an end to end e-commerce platform that makes it easy for users to shop for water bikes. The result is a simple solution that allows users to learn about the sport, browse water bikes by collection, see pictures and videos, view the technical specifications, read reviews, and checkout seamlessly, all in one simple to use app. Further research is being conducted around additional ways to categorize the bikes other than “casual” and “professional.” Research is also being conducted to understand how to best expand the offering to resorts.