Project Type
End-to-end website redesign for a plasmid repository.
My Role
Product Designer
Group Members
Senior Designer(1), Developers(2), PM/PO(2), Customer Service Lead (1)
Timeline
March -June 2023
Overview
As a co-op UX designer in Addgene, a plasmid repository company, I own the iteration for the item search phase within the checkout flow for both individual users and distributors, by redesigning the checkout drop box and releasing new file upload features within the distributor portal, I successfully shortened item searching time by 70% and enhanced customer experience.
Sprint Timeline
While the distributor-facing check-out redesign was my primary focus throughout the entire six months of my co-op period, I also contributed to other design tasks, including eBook download page redesign and brand guide restructure. I collaborated with the Agile R&D team, aligned with interdisciplinary stakeholders, divided the process into 15+ tickets, and achieved high-quality completion of them.
BACKGROUND & THE CURRENT PROBLEMS
The outdated checkout process doesn't align with the growing user base's needs.
Addgene is a plasmid repository, that accelerates science by sharing useful plasmid-based research materials, viral preps, and information worldwide. Scientists deposit their plasmids, so they are readily accessible to others to purchase for future experiments.
As an organization that started to serve the science community decades ago, accompanied by a fast increase of users these years, more and more problems have been floating up, especially for the most important plasmid checkout flow.
After rounds of research and customer interviews, Addgene’s team decided to start to reframe their checkout process. The design team divided the entire checkout workflow iteration into several phases. At the beginning stage of refining the check-out flow, we identified the following pain points experienced by our key users when trying to get the items they required.
DESIGN GOAL
How can we enhance the efficiency of the item-searching step in the checkout process to better serve both individual purchasers & distributors?
EVALUATION & BRAINSTORMING
Analyzed varying checkout flow for key user groups
Addgene currently serves two main types of users, individual ordinary users and distributors who collaborate and source from Addgene. They don’t share the same check-out flow. In order to understand these two types of customers, I started to walk through the two flows by myself.
Ideas of component redesign and new feature implementation
After understanding the distinctions between these two types of users, I collaborated closely with the PM and engineers to analyze the workflow to explore potential solutions. We believe that redesigning the cart drop-down and adding the file upload-matching feature would be a good way to start phase 1 of the workflow iteration.
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
Clarified the design principles
In order to ensure a focused, efficient, and user-centered design process, I started my design by setting the following design principles with my manager.
CART DROP DOWN REDESIGN
A more visible and easy manage new cart
The cart dropdown hasn't been updated since its initial development. Upon evaluating the old design, we unanimously concur that we require a more user-accessible design.
Design for different user scenarios & edge cases
In order to make sure I consider all potential scenarios, I set meetings with PM and developers to make sure I designed all cases they need.
THE NEW EXCEL UPLOAD FEATURE
Streamline the searching process and save more time
The current distributor checkout flow began with individual item searches, requiring distributors to manually input catalog IDs repeatedly to fill the cart, which significantly impacted the user experience and reduced their work efficiency.
After discussions with our customer service lead, who closely interacts with our distributor partners, we discovered that most of our distributors maintain Excel lists of each purchase, and they repeatedly use them as the source when searching for items. Consequently, I brought the idea of Excel Upload Match as a new feature to streamline the searching process to enhance efficiency and user satisfaction. When users upload their Excel sheets, the system will automatically identify and populate all the items they seek.
The best way to present the error message
When an Excel file is uploaded, the system initiates a matching process between our in-stock items and the customer's requirements. The matched items are automatically placed in the shopping cart. However, there are instances where certain items cannot be found. This presents the next design challenge: how to present these unmatched items to our distributors.
FEATURE DELIVERY
Design redlining and delivery
After validating the final design solution with all stakeholders, I initiated the redlining process to maintain design consistency during development. Additionally, I held bi-weekly meetings with our Product Developer, Pranav, to ensure smooth progress.
OUTCOME
Successfully shortened search time by 70%
The new design allows our clients to quickly add all their target items into the shopping cart by uploading their Excel in a few clicks. This design highly shortens the item repeat search time and enhances user experience.
NEXT STEPS
VALUABLE LESSONES LEARNED
Use as much as in-house resources
After I completed the design for the distributor check-out, I intended to run the usability tests with the distributors who we used to work with. However, the hiring process took longer than I thought, I was super stressed and I couldn’t think of an alternative way to verify my design. However, after sharing this concern with my manager, she mentioned that it’s a good idea to let our customer service leads, who work closely with our distributors help. Since they know almost everything about our distributors, I got some really good feedback and had more confidence to implement my design.