Smart Educational Toys Website
My Role: UX, UI Landing Page
Choosing the right toys for kids is challenging. Kids will play with whatever toys they have with them or around them. Spending some time choosing the right toys that fulfill their developmental needs is worthwhile. Toys are not just for fun. Toys play a major role in the development of fine motor skills and cognitive abilities.
In our research interviewing parents of little kids, we found out that most parents are overly busy. Parents do not have enough time to do their research to find out what toys are the best for their kids developmental needs. So, to solve this problem, we came up with IQ Toys.com.
Shopping toys from iqtoys.com makes it easy for parents and loved ones to buy the right toys which are not just meant for fun, but are educational and foster developmental needs of kids.
With just few clicks, the customers buying toys from iqtoys.com can buy age - appropriate toys, thus making a smart choice.
Design an e-commerce website for educational toys
This was my Project while I was studying 'User Experience Design Fundamentals' as a part of my User Experience and Web Design Certification at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2015.
This was a group project with 4 hard - working students. I worked with Saroj, Veenita and Yuko. Although we worked in a group for most part of the project, we had our roles.
- I came up with the website name: iqtoys.com
- I went to Westfield Oakridge mall in San Jose and talked to 8 people in the mall play area as a part of my research for this project. My goal was to understand the thought process of the customers while buying a toy from an e-commerce website. I also talked to some friends who have little kids to gather valuable information.
- I was working on the 'Search' section. It was my idea that the customer must be able to find the toys based on Gender, Age, Area of interest such as puzzles, science building kits ....etc, price range and customer ratings.
It was my idea to offer special discounts to school teachers as they are highly respected individuals and their suggestions are taken seriously.
- I also gave the suggestion of a photo contest. To participate in this, the customer must buy the toy from iqtoys.com and send a pic of them playing with that educational toy.
- I also worked on the Landing Page wireframe & UI Design completely on my own.
8 weeks
Field Study: I went to Westfield Oakridge Mall play area, San Jose, CA and had conversations with 8 people with the goal to understand their decision making process while purchasing toys from e-commerce sites.
Interview: I talked to 4 families on phone to understand how they choose the appropriate toys if they want to buy gifts.
After interviewing people, we created personas of people belonging to different age groups and who are in different phases of their lives.
In our research, we found out that the following points are disliked by the customers
1. The time spent to buy a suitable toy.
2. Not sure if the kid will like the toy
3. Not sure if the toy is age appropriate
In our research, we found out that the following points make the customer happy
1. Cheaper Prices
2. Large selection of products
3. Quickest delivery
4. Customer reviews
5. Deals & Coupons
Based on all the information that we collected, we formulated our Goals, Objectives and Policies document.
To develop an excellent e-commerce website of educational toys of high quality and value.
• It must have a wide range of educational toys designed for brain and skill development.
• It must focus on Customer Satisfaction.
• The website design must be neat and must have responsive design to cater to
customers using various platforms such as PC, Tablets and mobile phones.
• Top selling toys must be featured on the homepage.
• The toys must be sorted carefully based on age groups, skills and interests.
• When the customer searches for a toy, relevant search and related searches
must appear. Toys must be presented with visually appealing photos and
descriptions emphasizing on its unique selling points to support the customer to
effectively and efficiently make intelligent decisions.
• Customer must be able to view ratings and read reviews for every toy.
• The pricing of every toy must be competitive.
• When the customer has made a decision to buy the product, he/she must be able
to place the order with just few clicks/steps to ensure high conversion rate.
• Each and every detail about the shipping must be clear to the customer such as
when to expect the delivery, shipping charges, how to track shipping, etc.
• New products must be added to ensure that the website is staying up to date with
the market trends and customer requirements.
• When the user is making the payment for the first product, he/she must be
encouraged to sign up so that the customer shops the next time very efficiently
by just entering the user name and password.
• The payment system must ensure security.
• Protection of financial and personal customer information is an important part of
business for Smart Toys. Information is secure and it is never sold or shared with
anyone.
• All the toys available on Smart Toys website must follow the safety standards for
the respective age groups
• If the customer purchases a product on Smart Toys website and if the product is
defective and it is covered by the manufacturer’s published warranty, Smart Toys
will refund the cost or replace the product.
Based on all the information gathered, we created use models which was helpful to understand how exactly the website works.
I had put a lot of time on the Search section. Search is an important part in any e-commerce website. It can make or break a website's user experience.
I worked on the entire Landing Page wireframe on my own.
• I did in-depth research about Information Architecture. My goal was to help the users and complete their tasks effectively. All the features are organized, structured and labeled in an effective manner to lighten cognitive load.
• I included Photo Contest feature in which the users can participate by taking a picture of the toy purchased via iqtoys.com
• I included the Social Media links here on the landing page to help us reach out to more people.
• Live Chat 24 x 7 is added so that the customer's queries can be answered.
• There is a separate youtube link as videos have more impact. This will be used to promote toys in various categories that yield more profit.
Quick Toy Finder feature is added to the landing page to make it easy for the customers to find toys quickly.
Categories are neatly presented at the left side to make it easy to select toys as per requirement.
Teachers get discounts as they can influence this target group to make smart toy choices. A section is provided where they can choose from the drop down menu that they are teachers. They need to mention their School name, School ID and upload their proof stating that they are a teacher to get special discounts.
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