GOTPHOTO: APPLIED USER RESEARCH
Parents bounce.
The project
Company
GotPhoto
Online shop system for school and nursery photographers, serving two user groups: photographers (B2B) and parents (B2C).
Online shop system for school and nursery photographers, serving two user groups: photographers (B2B) and parents (B2C).
Role
Customer Journey Manager
Responsible for the B2C area of the product, and therefore the overall experience of parents when buying school and nursery photos online.
Responsible for the B2C area of the product, and therefore the overall experience of parents when buying school and nursery photos online.
Task
Improve buying experience
Use earlier gathered insights to improve the experience of parents accessing their online photo album, and thereby reduce bounce rate and increase conversion rate.
Use earlier gathered insights to improve the experience of parents accessing their online photo album, and thereby reduce bounce rate and increase conversion rate.
What's the issue to tackle?
After photo day, parents receive an access code to login to their child's online photo album. Once they login to their album, they first land on an overview page that shows them a preview of their photos and, if available, a voucher.
To actually enter the shop, another click is required. Often parents bounce here already, without browsing the photo products or buying anything.
Parents log in, but bounce right after without actually browsing the shop.
What did we learn from previous research?
Parents are proud
Parents are proud of their children and how they develop. Therefore nursery photos are a very emotional product that enables them to capture the steps of their children growing up.
These photos are a reflection of the moment, and moreover a moment you can't capture yourself as a parent because you are not there when your child makes their very own experiences in kindergarten.
Moreover, nursery photos are often bought for the family/grandparents as well. Share the pride.
She enjoys sharing his development with her family and parents.
She would love to capture every step of Lasse growing up. Especially because it's her first child.
Sandra Meinhardt is 34 years old, married, and works as editor in Hamburg. And she has a son, Lasse. He is 2 years old and her pride and joy!
In my previous case study 'A Parent's Journey' I introduced Sandra as our primary persona.
Remember Sandra?
How would Sandra feel about our overview page?
'Static'/boxy photo preview
"See all photos"
What's all? How many? Where do I land, if it's the other button I need to click to access the shop?
Is that all? Only 4 photos? Are these all square-shaped?
Impersonal/practical impression
I don't feel it... It's a kindergarten photographer. Shouldn't the shop show that?
"To your shop"
My shop? How is that 'my' shop? Am I not logged in already?
Seems quite impersonal and practical to me. I like that it welcomes me though!
How to convert our learnings into improving her experience?
User Stories
As a user, I want to see that the photographer cares about my personal photos, so that I feel good about purchasing them.
As a user, I want to know what to expect and clear guidance, so that I don't have to spend my time wondering whether and how to access the shop.
As a user, I want to know what to expect and clear guidance, so that I don't have to spend my time wondering whether and how to access the shop.
Hypothesis
By improving the first impression of the overview page as well as the usability for Sandra, we encourage her better to access and explore the online shop.
Challenge
Some aspects we can't influence, such as the quality of the photos themselves. Although they have a huge impact on whether parents are interested to see more, and actually buy, or not.
Also, the online shop system is a white label solution and each photographer has their individual style of work. Therefore the interface needs to work for the majority of photographers.
Also, the online shop system is a white label solution and each photographer has their individual style of work. Therefore the interface needs to work for the majority of photographers.
Inspiration and first ideas
Moodboard
Initial mockup
The main idea I had is to add more 'haptic' to the photo preview. Ideally in a way that you can already picture holding them in your hands, or hanging them on your wall.
To further emphasize the emotional aspect, I felt that adding text reflecting the personal value of nursery photos would enhance the overall impression of this page.
In addition, it seemed to make sense to reduce the CTAs from two to one to give clearer instructions on how to get to their photos.
What's the final outcome?
A few iterations later, we validated our improved version by running an AB test for 4 weeks. The test showed that the improved version converted better than the control group, which led to the decision to roll it out for all photographers.
Show the emotional value of the product
Clearer action
'Haptic'/dynamic photo preview
Total number of photos available
"Capture the moment! Your personal photos are just a few clicks away."
Follow-up with clearer action:"Order photos" instead of "To your shop"
Know what to expect
You can almost feel holding them in your hands
Main learnings & possible next steps
QUESTION PROCESSES
The new version led to 2.15% more revenue. Which is good. But what was missing from the beginning was a proper goal setting: Where do we currently stand and what are our expectations? How do we want to measure our success and why?
Today, first thing I would do is to actually test with users instead of running straight an AB test. Especially when it's a touchpoint in their journey where data shows there must be a significant pain point/obstacle. Once I've evaluated that, I'd run an AB test to validate my solution with data.
Iterate, iterate, iterate. Don't stop testing here.
Today, first thing I would do is to actually test with users instead of running straight an AB test. Especially when it's a touchpoint in their journey where data shows there must be a significant pain point/obstacle. Once I've evaluated that, I'd run an AB test to validate my solution with data.
Iterate, iterate, iterate. Don't stop testing here.
FURTHER IDEAS
Break down barriers: Is the overview page actually needed? Would it be possible to skip this page and login straight to the shop?
Customized approach: Allow photographers to edit this part of their page themselves to adjust the copy to their customers.
Customized approach: Allow photographers to edit this part of their page themselves to adjust the copy to their customers.