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UX Case Study

Window Shopping Mode

A new tool that allows users to make smarter shopping choices and helps companies maintain a consistent income.

*Not Affiliated with Amazon

Skills
UI/UX Design
User Research
Team
4 MHCID Graduate Students @UW
Tools
Figma
Timeline
10 Weeks, Fall 2024
Overview

E-Commerce Thrives on Impulse Purchases, At the Cost of Consumer Control

Impulse shopping is an interesting phenomenon in the e-commerce space: while impulsive purchases provide a company with quick consistent stream of income, long term user burnout can lead to loss of customer loyalty.

🛒

56% of users regret an Impulse Purchase, 39% of them share their regret publicly.

Large amounts of returns erode profit margins, and damage brand image and customer loyalty. (1)
Our Solution:

Balancing Consumer Well Being & Company Profit

I designed a new form of shopping - Window Shopping Mode (WSM) - that minimizes impulse purchases, curbs feelings of frustration and buyers remorse, while maintaining user loyalty to the brand.
When activated, this new feature prioritizes the use of the wishlist feature that Amazon already employs, rather than prioritizing adding to cart and buying. Wishlist making is in the forefront of product selection and allows users to more efficiently make lists.
Research

Understanding the Market

My main goal:

💡

What Features Encourage or Prevent Impulse Buying on an E-Commerce Platform.*

*For the Purposes of this Project, we defined Impulse Shopping as a Spontaneous Decision to Buy Something With No Prior Plans to do So.

It was found that many people kept being drawn to impulse shopping through addictive features. My team sought to find what specific features were so addictive to users, as well as what features might slow users down from impulse shopping.

What Our Research Consisted Of:

13 Question Poll
This poll was used to better understand what features mainly impacted users when shopping online through a large breadth of responses.
30 Minute Interviews
Select participants from our survey were interviewed and were asked more in depth questions about what habits they employed when shopping online.
1 Final Data Analysis
Final interview answers were collected and synthesized together to find any overarching issues regarding impulse shopping on e-commerce sites.
5 Participants
Participants chosen had self recorded a high frequency of online and impulse shopping. Users picked embodied diverse shopping patterns that all led to negative habits.

What Our Research Told Us About Impulse Shopping

💸

Budget-Friendly Perks Increase User Spending.

E-commerce sites employ multiple features that persuade users to impulse shop, such as sales, free shipping, and discount codes. While other aspects such as taxes, fees, and shipping costs might slow purchases down.

🤝🏽

Building Parasocial Relationships Drive Impulse Purchases.

Impulse buying is most common on familiar platforms as users are more confident making unplanned purchases where they have regular interactions, trusting the platform.

🏷️

For Better or Worse, Impulse Shopping is Here to Stay.

Impulse shopping offers excitement and convenience but poses financial risks, creating a confusing consumer relationship where the thrill of quick purchases is tempered by caution about overspending and regret.

Design
Following our generative research, we took the main findings and I developed a mode for users to shop without committing to a purchase. Window Shopping Mode works by allowing users to focus on items and move interested items to wishlists rather than directly to a cart. Most users utilized wishlists to slow down purchases so we decided that centering this feature without affecting prices would be the most optimal solution. The setting would be set by users and would allow them to curb any desires to shop impulsively by prioritizing planned purchases.
Following our generative research, we took the main findings and I developed a mode for users to shop without committing to a purchase. Window Shopping Mode works by allowing users to focus on items and move interested items to wishlists rather than directly to a cart. Most users utilized wishlists to slow down purchases so we decided that centering this feature without affecting prices would be the most optimal solution. The setting would be set by users and would allow them to curb any desires to shop impulsively by prioritizing planned purchases.

Getting to the Final Design

📍

Due to the time constraints of this project, we used the RITE method to develop prototypes for Window Shopping Mode. We had self diagnosed "impulse shoppers" as our participants, showing the team how our design would be evaluated by people on the extreme end of the shopping spectrum.

Iteration 1

"Pretend Shopping"
This approach simulated fake purchases that disappeared after completing a simulated transaction.
  • Participants HATED this and wanted to actually keep track of what they looked at rather than having it be deleted.
  • Participants became impatient with the onboarding process, noting it to be too long.
  • Participants expected the initial toggle to stay on the upper search bar more consistently.

Iteration 1

"Pretend Shopping"
This approach simulated fake purchases that disappeared after completing a simulated transaction.
  • Participants HATED this and wanted to actually keep track of what they looked at rather than having it be deleted.
  • Participants became impatient with the onboarding process, noting it to be too long.
  • Participants expected the initial toggle to stay on the upper search bar more consistently.

Iteration 2

Leaning Into Consistency
Second iteration had users move “purchases” to a wishlist before exiting WSM.
  • Participants wanted to prioritize the wishlist option as they shopped. During WSM was where these fake purchases were stored, so participants were confused whether this was a real purchase or not.
  • Participants also expressed a desire to have a wishlist button prioritized instead of cart button to ease confusion.

Iteration 2

Leaning Into Consistency
Second iteration had users move “purchases” to a wishlist before exiting WSM.
  • Participants wanted to prioritize the wishlist option as they shopped. During WSM was where these fake purchases were stored, so participants were confused whether this was a real purchase or not.
  • Participants also expressed a desire to have a wishlist button prioritized instead of cart button to ease confusion.

Iteration 3

Exchanging the Cart for the Pin
Third iteration replaced the cart with a wishlist feature (symbolized by a pin icon) that users asked for in earlier iterations to drive the message that users were not doing any shopping.
  • This, funnily enough, upset users. The idea of a new tab seemed good in practice, but not theory. The new wishlist icon confused users and made them want to exit WSM due to a confusing, new UI.

Iteration 3

Exchanging the Cart for the Pin
Third iteration replaced the cart with a wishlist feature (symbolized by a pin icon) that users asked for in earlier iterations to drive the message that users were not doing any shopping.
  • This, funnily enough, upset users. The idea of a new tab seemed good in practice, but not theory. The new wishlist icon confused users and made them want to exit WSM due to a confusing, new UI.
Results
Window Shopping Mode (WSM) is a new feature found in the menubar in the mobile version of Amazon. Upon activating WSM, the app gets a blue border to signify the feature is active. A toggle becomes available on the top right hand side to allow users to deactivate the mode at ease.
Users are now able to prioritize wishlist making through this feature, deprioritizing buying without restricting making purchases. Users are now able to make lists from ease as they look for items.
Check Out the Final Design

A walkthrough of Some Interactions

Onboarding the New Feature

WSM provides users with a toggle on the side that allows them to easily switch into this mode, as well as a walkthrough upon first setting up the feature for a comprehensive understanding of the feature.

Prioritization of Wishlisting

Activating WSM allows users to prioritize adding to wishlists straight through the search results as well as easily creating new wishlists during the WSM flow.

Shopping is Secondary, But Never Prevented

From all our research, it was clear that even when trying to not impulse, users still want the ability to shop. WSM's hierarchy deprioritizes adding to cart, but never hiding or disabling it.
Reflection

What did I learn?

Power of Data-Backed Design
I am a designer but this was a project that had me really push my research muscles and tested what I was capable of doing. I became comfortable with new forms of UX research and used them to my advantage to develop the most successful version of the final product.
Lean Into the Mental Models!
Patterns formed in users are powerful tools, nav tools are always put in the same places but rarely thought of why. The most successful version of this tool leaned into mental models to add to the experience, not detract.

What Would I Have Done Differently?

Prioritize Wishlisting
I would delve deeper during generative research to find how users might use wishlists more intently. Wishlists were integral to our final prototype developed, so I would like to go back and look deeper during generative research to see how users interact with wishlists.
Design Systems
I would have liked to have prioritized an existing design system more, particularly Amazon's mobile design system. Many assets were developed by imitating what was existing on pages, but following a design system might have streamlined the process.

Made with so much emotional support :)

Ricardo Sanoja Alarcon

Site works best on a laptop!

Ricardo Sanoja Alarcon