THE RIGHT HOOK
Enhancing a web based assessment for bra measurements.
My Role
UX Designer
Main Goal
Increase engagement with the web-assessment and conversion of users.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
ABOUT THE CLIENT
The Right Hook is a personal bra styling service that sends a curated assortment of bras to customers’ doorsteps, based on a web assessment that captures self-measurements and style preferences. This service aims to mitigate any inconvenience or awkwardness that comes with bra shopping.
THE CHALLENGE
Evaluate and improve the web assessment.
TEAM
2 UX Designers
1 Creative Director
TIMEFRAME
3 weeks
SOFTWARE
Sketch
InVision
Axure
DELIVERABLES
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Domain research
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Competitive analysis
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Wireframes​
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User journey maps
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Archetypes
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​​Click-through prototype
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​​Test plan
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Usability results report
THE PROBLEM
The current web assessment does not inspire trust in The Right Hook to deliver a quality experience, leading to low customer conversion and retention.
While users all agreed that the service model was simple, they were reluctant to try the service because they weren't confident in receiving items that would fit appropriately and matched their personal style. The core of the experience, the web assessment, left many users confused about what to expect.
Realizing that this was hurting customer acquisition, the client came to us to seek a new perspective and recommendations on how to enhance the experience. Due to scope and timing, we focused our efforts primarily on the assessment.
Current state
THE PROCESS
We ran a 3-week sprint, dedicating each week to a part of the design process.
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Week 1: Research & Definition
First, we familiarized ourselves with the industry and how The Right Hook fits into the market. We also used this time to identify opportunities and build empathy with users.
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Week 2: Ideate & Design
Next, we ideated various concepts and leveraged those to quickly validate assumptions and determine a direction for the final design.
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Week 3: Prototype & Test
Lastly, we built a click-through prototype with the final design to test for any glaring usability issues.
RESEARCH & DEFINITION
We leveraged domain research, competitive analysis, and user interviews to get a full understanding of the problem.
Our goal was to gather background information and insights that we could use to evaluate our design decisions later in the process. We started by getting a perception of bra shopping, the competition, and the users.
UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCE
We looked at blogs and forums to get an idea of what people loved and hated most about their bra shopping experience and saw a few consistent themes:
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Women want to be comfortable but feel sexy at the same time.
Comfort and sexy are not synonymous and often become a compromise when choosing the right bra. Body image plays a really big role in this shopping experience.
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Most women are wearing the wrong bra size.
They typically get fitted once or twice in their lifetime and stick to that size. Despite realizing along the way that they may be wearing the wrong size, the majority of women do not bother getting resized because they don’t like the experience of getting fitted. Some try to measure themselves but have doubts that they are measuring correctly.​
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It's important to feel included.
Users expressed how uncomfortable it was to shop for a bra as a transsexual woman. While it’s a fair assumption that the majority of bra shoppers are women, it’s important to keep in mind that the bra shopping experience should include everyone and anyone who wishes to purchase a bra.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET
On a scale of expertise and convenience, we found that The Right Hook falls within the ranks of ThirdLove, Peach, and True & Co. While the competition is strong and established, The Right Hook's main differentiator is its pledge to find the right size for everyone, including those who require extended sizes.
We also studied companies that have reinvented the traditional shopping experience for things that require a custom fit, such as Warby Parker, Birchbox, Le Tote, and Trunk Club. While these companies do not specialize in bras, they do employ web assessments and personal stylists to help customers find the right fit. From them, we learned that visuals and language help create a personalized experience, which is key to this kind of business.
UNDERSTANDING THE USERS
We conducted interviews with 10 users, some of which are customers of The Right Hook and others were users who have experience with personal styling and subscription services. This allowed us to understand how to best meet the needs of potential long-term users of the company. We asked all users to go through and evaluate The Right Hook’s web assessment to uncover any bottlenecks or confusion with the process.
From these interviews, we were able to identify some common themes:
INSIGHT #1
BRA SHOPPING IS A CHORE.
It's typically done for replenishment. Good bras are hard to come by and once a user has found a bra that fits well and looks great, they stick to it and buy in bulk. The notion of body image emerged again as almost everyone believed that they are a “weird” size, and attributed that as to why they rarely find a good bra.
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INSIGHT #2
PERSONAL STYLING COMES IN HANDY AT SPECIFIC TIMES.
While most users like to try subscription and personal styling services, they usually end up canceling their service. However, they are likely to return when they need an upgrade for an important occasion or turning point in their lives.
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INSIGHT #3
LACK OF EDUCATION & PERSONALIZATION LEAD TO DISTRUST.
While the tool provides high level important information, it's missing a level of detail that would help restaurant staff address customer concerns without having to call Deliveree to find out.
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Talking to these users helped us identify uses cases for different types of users. The current user base consists of primarily one-time, or very short-term users who wouldn’t go beyond one or two boxes. They're more likely to seek out bras on their own or buy in bulk once they find a good fit via The Right Hook. While we should consider these types of users, we wanted to take it a step further to identify users who would see long-term value in the service.
We then redefined the idea of “long-term”. For most services, that means customers are purchasing on a regular cadence, whether it’s weekly, monthly, biannually, etc. For The Right Hook, "long-term" meant that customers are turning to them at key discovery points or pivotal changes in their lives such as marriage, honeymoon, a new career, weight loss/gain, motherhood, etc.
I would turn to personal styling when I feel like I need an upgrade. The most value for me, personally, comes from knowing that someone is navigating all the stores for me. It’s not something that I would have time to replicate.
- Bra Shopper
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
To get these users to put us top of mind at every point of discovery, our opportunity became two-fold:
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To create value for new users, we need to establish trust that we are different and better than other services.
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To create value for existing users, we need to show that we know the bra industry and women can rely on us when they want something new.
Keeping their needs in mind, we started to ideate on how we can highlight trustworthiness in our designs. In order to accomplish this, education and personalization would play a huge role. We established a few pillars to guide us through our design.
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Empower me through education
Users are experts of their own bodies, yet when it comes to bra sizes, they trust fitters more than themselves. Design elements such as language and visuals should equip them with enough information to feel confident in finding the right fit on their own.
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Make me feel good
A good bra has the ability to make the user feel good. It's their secret weapon. The content and tone of the site should make users feel supported and reinforce positive body image as they define their perfect fit.
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Get to know me
The right bra is more than just the right fit, it's also about personality. Incorporating contextual elements to truly understand our users as individuals (and not just another bra size) is key to making them feel a part of the process.
IDEATE & DESIGN
We explored various ways to inject education into the web assessment and tested them for content and tone.
We knew establishing trust with new users through education was just as important as maintaining trust with existing users, but how much education and where? We also still needed to define the level of personalization. In order to suss out this information, we came up with a couple of concepts to use as a springboard for discussion.
Concept 1: Education before assessment
Education Before Assessment - a resource library that educates users on how bra sizes are determined before they do a self-measurement assessment
Concept 2: Education during assessment
Education During Assessment - a tool that educates how bra sizes are determined as it instructs users through the self-measurement assessment
From talking about these concepts, we gathered insights pertaining to trust, education, and personalization.
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Setting the right expectations is a form of trust building
Upon entering the site, users want to align on 2 things - how the service works and what needs to be done. Additionally, all users expressed preference for icons versus real images throughout the site. Understanding that it's impossible to guarantee the exact merchandise in their curated boxes, icons would be better as they provide a representation of what to expect. Using real images of bras might inadvertently create false expectations that could lead to disappointment.
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Understanding the ‘why’ in different measurements establishes trust in expertise. ​
Users want simple, specific directives to help prevent errors in measurement. Visual aids are appreciated, along with a brief description of why each measurement is required for a perfect fit.
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Ultimately, users want to know that we’ve ‘heard’ them.
Confirmation at the end of the assessment should reiterate all the decisions that the users have made because they are expecting to see some sort of result specifically for them. Additionally, users wanted more of a say in basic style needs such as bands, straps, padding, wires, etc.
PROTOTYPE & TEST
Leveraging our findings from concept testing, we determined a direction for the final design and tested it for usability.
The core of our solution is education but language, tone and visuals are also vital components in teaching users the how and why of self-measurement to determine their best fit.
We realized we had to be thoughtful with our information and how we showcase it to create buy-in for users to finish the assessment and move forward with their order placement. This digital experience was crucial in getting users to give the service a chance, so that they can move on to the product experience, where we know we can win them over and convert them to long term users.
TEST METHODS & GOALS
For the prototype, we prioritized desktop screens since most users do their online shopping on a laptop or desktop computer.
We recruited a mix of one-time users and potential repeat customers, all of which were brand new because we didn’t want bias from previous conversations to affect the results of this test.
Users had to complete three tasks:
1. Purchase a bra box
2. Create an account
3. Find resources
Our goals were to determine if they could go through the assessment with ease, whether or not they were compelled to purchase the bra box at the end, how they preferred to check out (as a guest or create their account), what content they wanted for resources, and what they expected to see as visuals throughout.
USABILITY FINDINGS
Overall, users were able to complete the assessment and even found value in it once they understood why they needed all these different measurements. Due to the nature of the service, users cannot see exactly what they will receive but they are now more confident that they will receive something that suits their style and needs. We also got great feedback around the type of imagery and tone users would like to see and what kind of information would be helpful for maintaining their bras.
HOME PAGE
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Set expectations and communicate business model with a high-level overview that can be understood at a glance.
"Measure, try, buy" makes it really clear what I'm doing.
- Prospective Customer
GET STARTED PAGE
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Set expectations around content of assessment with visual breakdown of the perfect bra.
I'm drawn to the visuals right away. They're pretty clear as to what I'll be doing.
- Prospective Customer
MEASUREMENTS PAGE
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Reduce error margin with visual aid and an option for video demo.
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Build trust with a quick blurb about why we need this measurement to determine the right size.
I like how, from left to right, that explains why the heck you're doing it.
- Prospective Customer
STYLE OPTIONS PAGE
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Alleviate cumbersome task with friendly language and tone.
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Use icons to communicate various styles.
"You can put your clothes back on." That cracks me up. And I think icons are better. Real images would set a level of expectation and I would be disappointed if that wasn’t met.
- Prospective Customer
RESOURCE PAGE
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Users liked a consolidated section dedicated to best practices for bra care.
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​Fun facts were interesting and appreciated but users wanted further explanations.
This makes you think, "oh I'm not doing these things". And it makes you rethink how you wear bras.
- Prospective Customer
CONFIRMATION PAGE
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The abundance of copy in this section leads to lingering confusion on what exactly can be expected from a bra box since users are skimming over and not actually reading.
I'm not sure what exactly I'm getting. I don't know if they're gathering brands or if The Right Hook makes the bras themselves.
- Prospective Customer
Overall, users were able to complete the assessment and even found value in it once they understood why they needed all these different measurements. Due to the nature of the service, users cannot see exactly what they will receive but they are now more confident that they will receive something that suits their style and needs. We also got great feedback around the type of imagery and tone users would like to see and what kind of information would be helpful for maintaining their bras.
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Our insights pointed to other aspects of product and brand strategy that would improve the end-to-end experience for customers of The Right Hook.
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Social proof is powerful.
Customers are more inclined to buy from a website or brand that have been recommended by friends or have stellar reviews. Consider word-of-mouth when planning any marketing campaigns/initiatives.
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Incentives can further the relationship with users.
New users need an incentive to try the service. Being able to apply the fee towards a bra purchase, getting a discount on bra retail prices, or having additional incentives (rewards, birthdays, referrals) could help start a relationship with new users and further relationships with existing users.
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Establish authority on bra care.
Users were intrigued by the notion of bra care - both as a resource and as a part of the service. Something as simple as a handout card in the box or a bra care kit can serve as added value for the user.
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Consider account page capabilities.
For returning users, there’s value in having an account if information such as measurements and order history could be saved. It would also allow for reminders to retake measurements and recommendations for bra styles they might be interested in.
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Inclusion is the key to empowerment.
We didn’t get a chance to address this in our design, but as mentioned early in our research, feeling included plays a key role in body image and the bra shopping experience. Since The Right Hook is moving in a branding direction that embodies empowerment, it’s important to emphasize language and visuals that evoke inclusion.
LEARNINGS
I learned the importance of identifying the right users, leveraging research, and building alignment with clients.
Identifying the right users
The biggest hurdle we encountered during this project was misidentifying our users. We initially spoke to users that were recruited by the client and we were under the assumption that they were the core user group. We ultimately found out that most of them hadn't actually tried the service or only used the service once.
In hopes of mining for more insights, we cast a wide net and gathered insights from any and all bra shoppers. This led us down the wrong path because we were uncovering problems with bra shopping, not necessarily problems with The Right Hook. Later, we realized that what we should've done was recruited users for psychographics relating to personal styling or subscription services. I learned that defining the right audience helps in identifying the right problem.
Building alignment
Since we pivoted a couple of times, the presentation aspect became even more important in helping the client understand why we revisited previous steps of the design process and how that impacted key design decisions. I learned that it’s important to build in points of alignment with the client so that they understand exactly how and why we arrived at the solution we did. The final solution shouldn’t come as a surprise and shouldn’t feel like an unveiling.
Leveraging research
This project reinforced my love for user research. We issued a survey early on in the process and asked for emails to follow up, in case anyone was interested in sharing more of their experiences. Through that, we were able to talk to other Chicagoans and even residents of Alaska and Hong Kong! It was so cool to be able to get perspectives from all walks of life and it was even cooler to validate that yes, bra shopping sucks universally.
Out of all the projects that I’ve worked on thus far, this one really challenged me to think about the user experience from a holistic view. Since language and visuals were key components in delivering a great experience to the end-user, I learned to be more thoughtful in my selection of words and imagery.
Lastly, in trying to understand the domain and maneuvering through our pivots, I learned how to leverage UX methods such as affinity diagramming, card sorting, and design principles to create a solution that is delightfully human-centric. Prior to this, I used these tools loosely, but now I can confidently employ these tools to deliver a better experience.
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