Case Study:

Powder Days

The goal of this case study was to truly understand diverse user experience problems snowboard mobile apps have, and ultimately, to solve these issues by designing more accessible and user friendly interfaces.

ROLE

TEAM

Self-Directed

Snowboard advocates

CLIENTS

YEAR

April 2022

Research

Usability Studies

Wireframes

User flows

Prototypes

Mockups

Ideation

Snowboarding apps in general have many issues with their complexity, such as their unmotivating and complicated In-app product purchasing process, and their unclear design language.

Design Challenge

01

Understanding

The User

  • User research

  • Personas/Problem statements

  • User journey maps

i

USER RESEARCH

Research made it clear that users find many snowboarding websites to be overwhelming and confusing to navigate (specifically the checkout process & product filtering).

Pain Points

Navigation

Designs are often “busy”, which results in confusing navigation.

1

Small product images which make item selection difficult; which leads to users frustrated.

2

Interaction

Don’t provide an engaging browsing experience for new releases.

3

Experience

ii

PERSONA

Problem Statement

Chad is a busy college student who needs intuitive website navigation and appropriately sized images of snowboards because they want online shopping to be simple and relaxing.

Goals

  • Access to new snowboard releases each season

  • Easy layout for navigation

  • Big clear pictures of snowboards

Bio

Chad is a 21 year old college student in Environmental Studies. He lives with roommates and goes snowboarding every season in order to relieve stress but also is his passion.

His frustration comes from the website layout, messy navigation systems, and lack of appropriately sized images.

Frustrations

  • Snowboard images aren’t big & clear

  • Messy navigation with too many menu drop down options

Would love to enjoy browsing snowboards as much as I enjoy shredding on them.
— Chad

iii

USER JOURNEY MAP

Chad’s experience using the site to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.

02

Starting

The Design

  • Sitemap

  • Wireframes

  • Low-Fidelity Prototype

  • Usability Studies

i

SITEMAP

Navigation on most sites had poor informational architecture. The structure chosen was designed to make navigation simple and intuitive.

ii

WIREFRAMES

User pain points concerning navigation, browsing, and checkout flow were in mind when considering designing the wireframes.

iii

LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

The screens involved the primary user flow: browsing, deciding, adding to cart, and checking out.

Based on feedback from the usability tests, buttons and page organization were rearranged. Several suggestions were implemented that addressed user pain points.

iv

USABILITY STUDY

Parameters set & findings discovered for the usability study.

Parameters

Moderated Usability Study

Study Type

United States, In Person

Location

5 Participants

Participants

20-30 Minutes

Length

Findings

Checkout

“Shop” button on both the hero page & homepage confused users and couldn’t locate products list.

1

Button

Users weren’t able to choose between a delivery or pick up option

2

During the checkout process, there wasn’t a clear way for users to log into their accounts to pre-fill previous billing and shipping info

3

Account

03

Refining

The Design

  • Mockups

  • High-fidelity prototype

  • Accessibility

  • Final Look

i

MOCKUPS

Based on the insights from the usability study three changes were made.

  1. Informational language was altered in order to more clearly navigate to the products page.

  2. Added checkout and pick up options.

  3. Easy access to profile login during checkout process.

ii

HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

The screens involved the primary user flow: browsing, deciding, adding to cart, and checking out.

Based on feedback from the usability tests, buttons and page organization were rearranged. Several suggestions were implemented that addressed user pain points.

iii

ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS

1

2

Landmarks to help users navigate the site, including users who rely on assistive technologies

Headings

Headings with different sized text were used for clear visual hierarchy.

Landmarks

iv

FINAL LOOK

04

Going

Forward

  • Takeaways

  • Next Steps

i

TAKEAWAYS

I learned that even a small design change can have a huge impact on the user experience. The most important takeaway for me is to always focus on the real needs of the user when coming up with design ideas and solutions. 

Impact

Our target users shared that the design was intuitive to navigate through, more engaging with the images, and demonstrated a clear visual hierarchy.

What I Learned

ii

NEXT STEPS

1

2

Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features

Usability Study

Conduct follow-up usability testing on the new website

Features

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