AMERICA’S BEST: WEBSITE REDESIGN
America’s Best is growing in popularity thanks in part to its affordable prices, product selection, convenient locations, and national radio and television advertising that is raising brand awareness; however, America’s Best website is difficult to navigate, overwhelming users with a messy information architecture comprised of an inconsistent hierarchy, nested promotions and multiple access points across categories.
The following is a proposed redesign of their website, upgrading America’s Best online presence from a discount glasses and contact retailer to a chic, modern digital storefront to better attract and retain its consumer base. New features include:
· Streamlined navigation.
· Hero products featured on the homepage to drive sales.
· Parallax scrolling with images filling the entire container to provide an immersive user experience.
· Integrated social media to engage with users on multiple channels.
· Multi-angle views of the frames on models in addition to the frame images to allow users to see the frames in action.
BUSINESS PLAN
We created a business plan, including a project overview, value proposition, competitive analysis, and requirements analysis to ensure all group members were aligned with the goals of the redesign prior to development.
Marketing Competition
Direct Competition: Companies like Pearle Vision, Lenscrafters, and Vision Centers (Wal-mart / Sam’s club) provide similar services to America’s Best. These companies give customers an end-to-end experience, allowing them to complete eye exams and select classes all in one brick-and-mortar location. America’s Best needs to strength it footing in the following areas: branding and products/services.
Branding: America’s Best needs to modernize the brand. The current look of the company feels outdated in comparison to higher-end brands (Pearle Vision & Lenscrafters). This outdated look affect brand recognition and how audiences perceive the legitimacy of the brand.
Products and Services: America’s Best manages to keep eye exams and glasses at low-price point. This is where Vision Centers (Wal-mart / Sam’s club) thrive. The issue here is how customers perceive the product. The customer might see cheap frames and lower prices as a negative trait (knock off frames\poor quality). America’s Best stocks frames from both affordable and luxury brands (ray-ban, Armani, etc). The goal is to promote both the products and services that attract customers from all levels of the spectrum.
Indirect Competition: America’s Best may provide customers with eye exams and glasses at fair prices, but some online competitors have different business models. Zenni and Warby Parker (who also has brick-and-mortar stores) are examples of indirect competition. These companies do not provide eye exams but carry a wide variety of frames and lens at a competitive price point. These companies provide online services unmatched by companies like Pearle Vision & Lenscrafters. Customer have the ability to look at frames online and have samples sent to their home. Customer can then input eye prescription and pick lenses. Glasses are then mailed to their home.
Intended Customers
We are working in the B2C sector, which means we are marketing toward consumers. Exactly who are these consumers? Our intended customers who are looking for a variety of brand names at a lower cost than competitors. This includes consumers who are looking for more affordable options, as well as luxury brands at a lower price point.
We plan to attract these customers by designing a complete shopping experience within the new website, which includes better integration and competitive pricing for a stronger digital experience. In our redesign, we will better integrate the eye exam and prescription location process. When shopping for frames, customers should be able to complete these key tasks with ease. It should effortlessly flow into the shopping experience. While this process is currently available on America’s Best website, it is orchestrated poorly.
America’s Best needs to stress the high quality of products at this low price point to remove any doubts from the customer’s mind. They need to be convinced that they are buying quality products. One way to do this could be to integrate affordable brands with luxury brands at competitive price points.
Our goal is to design a powerful digital experience. We want to compete with companies who have a strong online presence (Zenni and Warby Parker), and we will do this by strengthening our digital offerings. Customers should be able to order test frames, glasses, frames and contacts, as well as book eye exams and look up their previous America’s Best prescription, all from their computer or smartphone.
USER PERSONA
We defined our target demographic as male and female, ages 25-50 who are looking for quality mid- to high-end designer glasses and developed a key persona to ensure we were designing with the user in mind.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
We conducted a card sort and used the results to develop a high-level site map and flow chart of our navigation. In addition, we created user flow charts for three key tasks (finding an item, adding an item to a shopping cart and checking out) to ensure our navigation and subsequent pages included all information necessary to complete a purchase. These elements were used to create a low-fidelity prototype of the website for user testing.
Site Map
User Flow
Navigation Flow
USER TESTING
Round One
We conducted three usability tests using a paper prototype, and all users were able to complete the following tasks: Add contacts to your shopping cart, locate a store, join the eye care club and contact America’s Best.
However, All three users struggled to find the locate a store link above the top navigation. This may present a problem as the America’s Best physical store locations are instrumental in providing customers a full suite of services, including eye exams. Users were drawn to the add to cart button on the contacts page, as opposed to the link near the top. This appeared to be because they recognized they would have to add their prescription. Lastly, users initially failed to connect “Get in Touch” with “Contact Us.
Round Two
We conducted three usability tests using a high-fidelity prototype, and all users were able to complete the following tasks: Add contacts to your shopping cart, locate a store, join the eye care club and contact America’s Best.
When asked to locate a store, all three participants had difficulty. Two of the three participants used the “Get in Touch” link located on the top navigation menu when looking for a store locator. All three participants stated that they would not have expect to only find the locator on the “Schedule an Exam” page, and they did expect to find it within the contact page. None of the participants were able to locate the store locator button located within the body of the main page.
FUTURE ITERATIONS
For future iterations of this design, we will take the findings from the usability testing and change the following:
· Adding the store locator to the homepage, contact page, as well as having its own navigational link in the top navigation menu.
· Edit the “added to cart” message so that it is more prominently displayed within the page.
· Add an input field to the “newsletter” icons to allow users to enter their email.