Shipping Methods

Helping new users set up shipping methods on their ecommerce shop independently.

BACKGROUND

Lightspeed is an eCommerce platform that helps independent businesses build a strong web presence. We knew that new Lightspeed users experienced difficulties setting up shipping methods, as this was the 9th most popular support ticket topic submitted. Not only was this a source of discouragement for new business owners, but also the company was spending a lot of resources as a workaround to a poor product experience.

MY ROLE

I was responsible for the entire design process, from discovery to delivery. I worked with stakeholders from sales, onboarding and the customer support team. 

GOAL

We set our goal to reduce the number of shipping-related support tickets by 20%.

Part 1.

Discover & Define

UNDERSTANDING

I interviewed stakeholders from various teams such as product, sales, onboarding, and customer support to gather everything we knew about the problem space. I also combed through reported tickets related to shipping. I then synthesized the existing problems into 4 sub-topics: informational, new features, design, and bugs.

I documended the differences between shipping methods between Europe vs. North America to ensure we deliver custom solutions based on customer regions.

PRIORITIZING

We knew there was so much we could do to improve this experience for our users. We also knew that it would be a monstrous task to do it all, so we prioritized the problems using the impact vs. effort matrix.

DEFINING

Focusing on the problems that landed in low effort/high impact quadrant, we identified two overarching themes to tackle in the first phase:

Lack of education
Some users were new to selling online and simply did not know where to start, and we weren’t doing a good job explaining all the options. Other users knew what they wanted, but a confusing content strategy and existing bugs made it difficult to successfully set up a shipping method.

Lack of clarity and guidance
We weren’t letting users know when their shipping method was not set up correctly and what they could do to fix it. This caused a lot of confusion for our users and they were not able to independently find a solution without calling into support.

Part 2.

Develop & Deliver

IA

I explored introducing diferent levels of information to users, such as showing all available options up front and describing what each of the shippig method is. In the end, we chose the design that showed only what's relevant to the user, while creating an easy access to add more shipping methods should they wish to. 

COPY

Users were not aware of all the possible options of shipping methods, and they also did not which one to choose. We clearly differentiated the two different types of shipping methods and added descriptive texts to further educate the users. I worked with a content writer to fine-tune every word to be concise yet informative.

USER ACTION FEEDBACK

When filling out forms and adjusting configuration settings, users did not receive any instructions from the platform on how to do it correctly. They also did not receive feedback if they did it incorrectly. We distinguished which fields were mandatory, and prevented them from moving on if they did fill it out correctly. The app provided immediate feedback for any mistakes the user made in this process.

VALIDATE

I conducted a usability test with new and existing users from North America and Europe, and applied the feedback to the final design. 

SOLUTION

IMPACT

I left the company before seeing the results of this project, but I feel confident in my role of breaking down a large-scale project to quickly deliver the most impactful solutions to both the users and the business.