Client Overview
Uniqlo is a clothing company founded in Yamaguchi, Japan, in 1949. Originally a textile manufacturer, Uniqlo has now developed into a globally known brand with over 1000 stores around the world. Their most recent mission statement is, “Unlocking the Power of Clothing." Through clothing sustainably developed using high quality materials that are built to last, the company aims to create a better world for humans. Uniqlo has several channels to engage with customers. Social media channels aside, they have both a mobile and desktop website, mobile app and retail store. While a substantial portion of their profit is generated at the in-person retail store, e- commerce is on the rise. With a consolidated revenue of 1.2676 trillion yen (+ 6.8% year on year), online sales of Uniqlo continued their strong expansion, rising 30.3% year on year and raising the e-commerce proportion of total sales from 7.5% to 9.9% in the first half of 2019.
Information Environment
Many of the website functions found on the Uniqlo site are pretty standard for an e-commerce site because their intended functions align with user needs. For example, a search bar helps with known item seeking or re-finding, and the large expandable navigation bar lends itself to exploratory seeking (Nadya Tsech, 2018). However, Uniqlo's application of these functions have issues and should be improved to improve the user experience.
Potential Users
To gain insight into our users, we conducted user research. Each of us interviewed two people of varying experience with Uniqlo for a total of 10 interviews. We found the most typical user behavior common to all three groups when using the Uniqlo website is browsing. Many of these users use the site as an extension to the store; this means that they use the website as a resource before deciding to buy something. From our research, we were able to identify three main types of users.
THE UNIQLO INSIDERS
Uniqlo insiders are users that are very knowledgeable on all things at Uniqlo. They are very aware of all the branded content Uniqlo has (i.e. Heattech, UT Tees, etc.), and they stay up to date with new collaborations and collection releases. While they may not buy a lot from Uniqlo, they interact with Uniqlo, either in-store or online, very often. An example of a typical Uniqlo Insider behavior is someone who follows Uniqlo on social media, sees their updates, and browses the site regularly based on posts they see.
THE UNIQLO FANS
Uniqlo fans are users that like Uniqlo, but don't check the website or visit the store too often. This group makes up the vast majority of users on the Uniqlo website as many of the people we interviewed cited only shopping during sales which only occurs a few times a year. Because this group of users does still interact with the website somewhat regularly, they may have some knowledge of insider terms. However, this group will not be up to date with the latest collection releases. Instead, based on their previous experiences with Uniqlo, they will expect a certain amount of things to be present and search based on their own mental models of how Uniqlo can fit their shopping needs at a given point.
THE UNIQLO NEWBIES
Finally, Uniqlo Newbies are users that know of the brand but don't necessarily shop there. An example of a Uniqlo Newbie from our interviews is a parent who often accompanies their kids to Uniqlo. In other words, they are familiar with the brand and have gone into the store a handful of times, but they themselves don't necessarily buy clothes from there. While this user group has the least familiarity with Uniqlo, their experience with other clothing retailers means that they have some preconceived ideas of how a clothing e-commerce website at large should work.
Current IA's Strengths
After conducting the user task analysis, we discovered that the strength of this current system is the thoroughness of menu items in navigation bar and recommended items on the product page, which allow users to navigate to specific items in the shortest time. However, this only applies to users who are familiar with Uniqlo's web page structure and know exactly what type of product they are looking for. Users during our task analysis generally had positive feedback on the recommended items on the product page, commenting that they can easily navigate from one product page to another similar product page, decreasing the time needed to find a similar product. In addition, most users also started the search with the top navigation bar when told to search for a specific series of clothing and were able to find the specified target. This meant that Uniqlo has a database that is able to cross-reference similar items for user recommendations.
Current IA's Weakness
The strength of Uniqlo's current approach, however, can also be a serious weakness since the thoroughness of menu items in the navigation bar can easily lead to information overflow and disrupt the information architecture and usability of the web page. The weaknesses are organized into the following categories:
Disorganized
The navigation of the Uniqlo site is inconsistent, making it disorganized and difficult for users to find what they want. Certain categories are sorted in alphabetical order while other sections are sorted in a more categorical method. While the current site follows a Z-Pattern, which places items according to the direction of human sight, the sheer amount of information is overwhelming. This pattern, however, may not be the most suitable for the type of content that Uniqlo is presenting.
Redundant
The Uniqlo's information architecture is redundant, adding further complexity to the site's organization. To arrive at this section, users have two options. For instance, the inclusion of the “New" bar in addition to the New Arrivals option results in more unnecessary information in the site's navigation.
Unreliable
The search system for Uniqlo's site is unreliable and inaccurate. As shown in the screenshots beside, searching for the keyword "sweatshirt" results in a top result of both woman's outerwear and sweatpants. The search bar is clearly not as accurate as it should be, making users work more than they need to in order to find the item they are seeking.
Recommendations
In order to improve the user experience of the Uniqlo website's information architecture, our recommendations center around the four main issues we found when auditing the website: disorganization, redundancies, inconsistencies and unreliable components. A large part of our recommendations center around creating a sense of cohesiveness throughout the website. This means creating more consistent, predictable, and intuitive task flows that are easy to understand. Not only did we want to improve ease of understanding but also ease of use. In order to do this, we created a clearer overall hierarchy that allows users to quickly scan a given section and still be able to correctly go where they need to go. We believe that these changes will create a better experience for all users, and below, we will go into more detail on how these changes can be implemented in each category of IA.
Organization System
Current organization system
Uniqlo's current top-level drop-down menu items (Now Trending, Shop by Category etc.) are too vague which makes quickly navigating this drop-down very difficult. To tackle this, we decided on a hybrid scheme made up of both topical organization for main categories and an alphabetical scheme for subcategories. We will be using a topical ambiguous scheme for categories of wear, for example, tops, bottoms, and accessories.
Proposed organization system
For subcategories, we plan on using an alphabetical scheme to make these details more easily findable. The subcategories seem to be listed in some sort of order of importance, however, based on the task analysis we conducted, this order of importance made it difficult to scan the subcategories. For example, one user clicked on the first category she saw, outerwear and blazers, when trying to find a work outfit, only to realize later that this section did not include work shirts. Thus, we feel that in order to make the experience itself more seamless, changing the organization to an alphabetical scheme will make things easier to find.
Labeling System
Current labeling system
During our audit of the website, we noticed that collections are what sets Uniqlo apart from other brands. Collections are curated groups of clothing, collaborations, or Uniqlo technologies. Technologies refer to branded fabric technologies Uniqlo has developed, similar to something like Gore-Tex. However, all these different types of collections are inserted awkwardly throughout the site and inside the tab of the trend report. This makes understanding collections confusing unless one is a Uniqlo expert.
Proposed labeling system
Given the prominent role collections have for Uniqlo, we wanted to highlight collections more prominently in our redesign. Therefore, we decided to get rid of the confusing 'Trend Report' and create a new Collections top level nav item. Trending clothes would then be featured in the respective Womens, Mens or Kids drop downs in order to better serve our users. This Collections top navigation item would then include Collaborations, Technologies and Clothing collections in a centralized location which aids in user understanding of what the label Collection' means while also helping relieve navigational issues.
Site Map
The redesigning of the sitemap was to help streamline the process in which a potential customer would take to the product page, regardless of their familiarity wit hthe website. In this reorganization, we wanted to emphasize more on the breakdown of Technology', 'Category' and 'Collection'. In doing so, users could approach the process with their own agenda (to purchase clothes for an interview/ to buy a specific item) and reach the product page in the quickest time. As seen in the Proposed Sitemap, we decided to add a “ Collections” tab on the top menu navigation bar, which would hold the "Collaborations" and "Technologies" pages. Given Uniqlo's unique categorization of a good portion of their clothing line into the various technologies, we believe that providing a separate entry point into the various technologies offered by Uniqlo would help generate a greater click-through rate. We also decided on the redesign as the previously used tab "Trend Report", did not justify the subcategories within it - "Collections" & "Collaborations". Given our previously specified focus on Uniqlo Insiders and Fans, having "Collaborations" and "Technologies” together under “Collections" would also help with their accessibility. As for the Drop-down menu, we decided to recategorize the clothing into larger subcategories - "Tops", "Bottoms”, “Outerwear", “Underwear” and “Accessories". This reduced the potential amount of time taken by Users to look for a particular subcategory of clothing, given the larger breakdown these clothes fell under (Tops/Bottoms etc.). Additionally, the subcategories are organized alphabetically, allowing for easier readability within them.