Case study:

Helping Ringtons optimise the usability of their e-commerce site before launch

The challenge

Ringtons is a well known family business that has been serving customers across the north of England since 1907. Their unique doorstep service is as legendary as their tea, if not more. However, the team at Ringtons recognised that the experience for customers of their online service should match the level of service their traditional service offers.

The team wanted to get feedback on the visual design of their new e-commerce offering initially and understand if their menu categories made sense, before testing the full buying journey from start to finish. They also wanted to ensure that customers from older age groups, locations and users of mobile and desktop devices were fully represented in the research.

Hypothesis

Getting feedback on the visual design of a website can be subjective and unreliable. People will be more complimentary during interviews, which will negate the data. We needed a way to get meaningful data in a more neutral way, so we suggested doing unmoderated research online in the form of a desirability study using Microsoft’s Product Reaction Cards which is a useful method for collecting objective feedback on visual design. For the menu/categories research, we focussed on the 2 categories with the most crossover (treats and gifts) and designed a first-click test to see where people are most likely to click when looking for certain products. We used Optimal Workshop for the desirability study and click test, combining them into one short activity and we proposed a sample size of 30 to make things more robust.

To get data on the user journey and the usability of specific pages and elements, we opted for formative usability testing with 6 people using a combination of remote testing on Zoom (to ensure we hit the geographical criteria) and face-to-face testing (so that we could include older, less tech savvy people in the research). We also used a combination of online recruitment (using Facebook ads and our panel) for the online sessions, and traditional recruitment (to find more hard to reach people).

Close up of someone using a tablet with an online survey showing on screen

Close up of someone using a tablet with an online survey sClose up of someone using a laptop with the Ringtons website showing on screen

What we did

Recruited 46 participants in total using a combination of database, social and traditional recruitment (for people with low tech confidence)
Designed and launched a first-click test and desirability study online, collecting 29 responses.
Conducted 3 rounds of moderated usability testing using a mix of online (Zoom) and in-person sessions in our portable lab, with participants using their own devices.
Held regular catch-ups with the team at Ringtons so that we fully understood their requirements for each round of testing and so they could co-design the study.

Results

Provided robust insights on the visual design of the website, which allowed the team to confidently move forward based on repeated positive feedback collected during all studies.
Identified 27 usability issues in total during testing, ranging in severity from high, medium and low.
Provided fully actionable recommendations for improvements for all issues identified.
Presented findings for each round of research, including video clips and annotated screenshots, where required.
Delivered all studies on time and within budget.
The team took on board our recommendations and the new Ringtons website went live in March ‘24.