My team and I at Startup Institute worked with Dear Kate, a women's underwear startup, on usability research and a re-design of their website.
Issue: the website attracted a good amount of traffic, but their conversion rates were not reaching an optimal level. Our group surveyed 40-50 women in Dear Kate's target market (ages 30-60) to find out what was preventing them from purchasing.
Our results: the top findings were -- A) the purpose of the product was unclear, B) users wanted to know more about fit, feel and comfort, C) the price was too high, and D) women wanted to know how others felt about the underwear (menstrual flow and incontinence issues are touchy subjects).
We used these (and other) results to suggest a re-design of their 1) Home page, 2) About page, and 3) FAQ page, based on common user concerns.
Below are the "Before" and "After" views of their Home page.
BEFORE:
It's hard to tell what Dear Kate underwear is about by looking at the opening slider. Is it a sports brand? Lifestyle brand? What's the value proposition for buying a pair of their underwear vs. regular cotton brands? Instead of addtional information, you see a press section and then the site jumps right to finding a fit.
AFTER:
We changed the slider to portray a more informative description of their product to reduce confusion. In addition, we addressed each question / concern in their own unique section (description, feel, technology, etc.). In order to address concerns over price, we came up with a "storyboard" idea -- this describes, in six steps, how the product creation process works at Dear Kate.
An identical version of the re-designed landing page above, but tailored to show a condensed form of the text (to keep the clean, aesthetic look they currently have). This view also shows the images that will be shown when a user hovers over the "storyboard" sections.
Below are the "Before" and "After" views of their About page.
BEFORE:
BEFORE:
Unclear what "Girl Code" is, how it relates to the company, and what they're really about.
AFTER:
We added additional information to better represent the brand and explain what their product does, and how the technology is unique. In addition, we made the "Shop Now" button more apparent than it used to be, since some users did not know it was a button during our research process.
Below are the "Before" and "After" views of their FAQ page.
BEFORE:
BEFORE:
Information is cluttered; everything is grouped under the heading "The Underwear".
AFTER:
We grouped all questions into relevant categories and created a drop-down system, as you can see below. This way, anyone who has a specific question about the underwear knows where to go.
