Online Little Einstein Toy Store
Group member: Simin (Project manager) Ankita Clare
Overview and Business Goals
Little Einstein is a new online retailer of curated and innovative learning kits for kids. It was formerly a beloved shop in Park Slope Brooklyn that sold all types of DIY kits (both analog and digital), but the storefront was too expensive and the shop closed in 2012. The owner wants to convert the store to online only and the owner (Alberta) now wants to focus her inventory on technology and electronics products geared towards kids ages 4 - 15. The primary goal for Little Einstein is to become the #1 resource for parents that want to incorporate hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Art + Design) education into their child’s everyday learning experience. The brand of Little Einstein celebrates learning while allowing kids to experiment and play with technology. The new online store will reflect the STEAM-focused Philosophy of Littler Einstein by featuring new, innovative products, while at the same time maintaining a playful and creative vibe that was found in the store. The new website should inspire parents to spend money and feel like they made a good investment on a toy that will give the gift of learning.
Alberta’s Quotes from the client meeting:
“ I want it to have the vibe of the former store in Brooklyn - a place that kids would walk by and not be able to stop staring into the storefront window...day and night”
“I have an incredible selection of DIY radio kits, starter Arduino kits, and many other kits. It was often hard to explain how awesome these were on the shelf, so I am hoping that online will be able to show how great these kits are for kids”
“I don’t want to miss out on the community vibe. I had a play area in the back of the store with a few open kits and toys. Often the kids would play back there together and the parents would buy whatever toy they were playing with. How can this unique experience be translated to the online experience?”
“I avoided going online in the past because I thought that the web was a lonely place, I think I am going to miss that one on one contact with my customers. Is there a way I could feel less lonely by putting this shop online?”
“In the shop, I would pair each toy with a children’s storybook, movie, show, or theme. I would like to continue doing that somehow online.
Research & Observation
Before we went to the toy store, we prepared a few questions that need to be solved.
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Why do people go to toy store instead of shopping online.
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What type of toys that are the most popular in the store.
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Which section attracts parents the most?
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What kind of demo does the store have
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Their placement of toys
Store Visit
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A fun community part of the website could be a review section, where parents could tell each other about the toys. Including how noisy they are.
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Alberta was also talking about demonstrating the toys fun. Showing a video would do that, but it was also help buyers gauge how loud a toy is.
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It also showed that a good way to categorize toys is through their type, like they did in the store.
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The popularity of the mystery toys may be a bit of a fad, but it also might be interesting to have a mystery box feature on the website where the parents choose a price, and a certain number of mystery toys comes to their door.
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Lastly, this showed me the site should list the materials and where the toy comes from.
At Kidding Around (on 15th and 6th) there was a wide variety of toys, and they were separated by type. For example there was a Doll section and an outdoor section. In their educational section they had a lot of science kits. An employee said that a laser tag game, a toy egg set, and large teddy bears. I also asked the employee about parent concerns, and she said that most parents were concerned about material and where the toy comes from. Another major concern for people buying toys for others people's kids is noise. No one wants to buy someone’s kid a toy that is going to be annoying. The decor of the store was a lot of wooden shelves, and handwritten signs.
Sketch & Brainstorming
Category / Card Sorting
After collecting 50 steam toys. We tried different sorting methods. We did an user testing in card sorting part and compare the time and effort that our user need to find a specific toy in these categories.
User Personas
Sitemap
Based on Alberta’s Quotes from the client meeting, we conclude Alberta’s requirements are as follow:
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Attractive display
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Clear and specific introduction of products
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Community
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Relevant products and theme
Based on these requirements we designed our Sitemap1.0
Version 1.0
In sitemap 1.0 we have 3 main categories including products, discount, and community. We put Forum, announcement, and demo inside the Community Category.
Version 1.1
In sitemap 1.1 we have 3 main categories including products, discount and More.
Iterations:
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Category Community -------> Category More
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Function Demo ------> Removed from the main function ( can be seen in product page)
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Function 3D ------> Added to the Category More
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Theme function------> Added to the Category More
Based on these requirements we designed our Sitemap1.0
Paper Prototype
User test 1.0
We have done our first user test with the clickable interactive paper prototypes. When we finish one user testing we will ask them to fill a questionnaire for us in google form.
What do you like about the website?
What would you like to change about this website?
Conclusion:
Paper prototype feedback
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Some confusion with the 3D play section was noted as we received around 11% very negative feedback as opposed to the 78% positive feedback.
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The forums section was well received.
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Users like to click and go around the website, even after they’re done with their tasks. They get confused when there is no way to go back.
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Users immediately wanted to click the logo to go back to the main page.
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It will more helpful if every toy had a background story, it would make the experience more interesting.
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The help interface did not have a send button.
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The ‘more’ category is confusing.
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Missing ‘wishlist’ function!
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The demo function should be more clear.
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Every section should have more specific categories.
Sitemap Version 2.0
Based on the Feedbacks we got in the user testing process. We redesigned many parts of our website.
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We realized that the ‘more’ option in the previous sitemap was redundant considering the fact that the home screen could accommodate every option inside it. So we decided to make tabs on the home screen to offer all options under ‘more’.
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We added a few more functionalities such as account login and search. The search option we figured would give the same output as products page.
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We added another feature called the wishlist that would help users store those products that they like and would want to buy later, in a separate list.
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The 3D play function was updated with a few more functionalities.
Clickable Interactive Prototype
User testing 2.0
User 1:
User Age: 52
Role: Parent
Task : Add a toy to your cart. Find the forums.
Feedback: Said that a lot of the links were broken, which was confusing. There should have been a space to enter your email, but he did not find it.
Iteration: Fixed the broken links. Added the email part.
User 2:
User Age: 43
Role: Parent
Task: Find the 3D play function. Go to your account page.
Feedback: There was not back button in many parts of the account page. The login button did not work.
Iteration: Made back buttons, fixed broken links.
User 3:
User Age: 23
Role: Buy for herself
Task: Explore the whole website
Feedback: Here are some problems I found during user testing.
1. In the product page, then click add to wishlist, the pop-out window should show the message keep shopping and go to wishlist. But it is keep shopping and go to cart now.
2. In the login page, we didn't add the link from the login button to the account page.
3. We didn't add the sort by function in the forum interface.
4. We didn't add the link from the item in the 3d play page to the 3d play subpage.
5. In the discount page, we didn't add a link between the product page and the items on the discount page.
6. In some pages, we can not see the submenu of products.
7. When clicking account icon in the top-right of the page, it should go to the account page.
8. When Click the second item in the message page. It should link to the message(1) page.
Iteration: We correct all the interaction problems.
User Age: 52Task: Add a toy to your cart. Find the forums.
Feedback: Said that a lot of the links were broken, which was confusing. There should have been a space to enter your email, but he did not find it.
Iteration: Fixed the broken links. Added the email part.
User 4:
User Age: 21
Role: Buy for herself
Task: Buy one product. Explore the 3D function.
Feedback: When finish checking out, there is no sign that the purchase is successful. In the 3D play function, she couldn’t find the 3d model inspector.
Iteration: We added the pop-out windows to the purchase page and some hover description of the 3d model inspector.
User 5:
User Age: 19
Role: Buy for himself
Task: Try to find every function in this web
Feedback: The design of this website should be more colorful.
Iteration: I told him this is only a prototype
UserFlow
