⚠This case study was started on 08/01/2021 prior to the latest update version⚠
What is SOCO? 💄
SOCO is a beauty e-commerce in Indonesia, established by Sociolla. The app provides an ecosystem of the beauty enthusiast community, where people can review, discuss, and buy products in one platform. Along with that, SOCO users can connect with others, browse through beauty-related articles & videos, as well as getting a personalized beauty products recommendation. It also sells authentic & BPOM (Indonesian FDA) certified beauty products.
Role
👤 Kansha Eriella Savanti 💼 Product Designer 🗓️ Aug 2021
Despite the exceptional features and a great number of users, I had noticed a couple of issues while using the product. As a user, I used SOCO on my Android phone to buy products & read the reviews. Regardless, I can't seem to browse products by searching their category in the search bar. I was hoping to see a set of products that I had in my mind on the search result, but it was only showing products that have the search keyword in its name, and a couple of products related (though I couldn't find out in a specific way of how they are related). I also observe that the placement of the menu for browsing products (the Categories & Brands menu) is hard to notice.
That being said, I aim to improve the searching & browsing experience and the discoverability of the section of Categories & Brands of the mobile version of the app**.** Both journeys are an important part of e-commerce user as it can drive more transactions to the app.
However, before creating a solution, I need to strengthen my problem statement with user research. To validate my assumption that the problems are also experienced by other users, I challenge my problems by conducting user research.
I began my research with qualitative usability testing. I wanted to validate and dig deeper into my assumptions, exploring what could be the other problems around the issue.
Usability Testing
I selected different categories in my participant pool to ensure that I am not missing important nuances. In total, I tested six participants remotely. The first two are regular users of the app, the other two are not as active but already familiar with the app, and the last two have at least used the app once.
The two tasks that I assigned to my participants were:
Find & choose one body exfoliant under Rp30.000,00 (How would they interact with the app to find a specific product? What steps would be taken?)
Choose a lip product that suited you the most (What matters the most to the participants when buying a product? What information would they want?)
The tasks were given in a form of scenario to ensure that the participant would understand the context and be more comfortable while executing the tasks. I also asked the participants to implement thinking aloud technique while performing the tasks. This means they would say what they thought out aloud. 😁 This technique was used so I can understand better about the participants' motives, needs, pain points while using the app. I also asked a couple of open ended questions after the participants finished their tasks, in which I explored more about their motivations, needs, and frustrations.
During my synthesis, I gathered all the findings and utilized affinity diagram, to better look recurring pattern of my observations & findings that can help my decision making.
.png)
Validation Findings:
The search bar is not functioning properly
"Pas dicari barangnya, nggak ada, tapi sebenernya kalo dicari-cari lagi ada," A participant mentioned about how she can't find a specific product even though it's located somewhere in the app "Cuma ini aja?" - Said one participant while searching for a product "Antara ada dan nggak ada" - A comment made about the search result on the first task
The participants were not satisfied when they used the search bar. The search result tends to show products that have the search keyword in its name, and other products with a name related to that keyword—in no particular order, which is kind of confusing.
I feel like there are more to uncover this problem, so I tried to explore it myself. What I've found is rather confusing:
<aside> 👉 There are three ways to search/browse products (excluding searching by brand): Using the search bar, using the category filter, and using the category menu. Each of them are showing different results.
</aside>
.png)
So, is my first assumption validated? Yes and no—The search system & filter itself are not functioning properly.