Background/Overview

Our project aims to transform the way we spend, track, and budget money online. Throughout this project, we will be focusing on the largest online retailer in the US - Amazon. As of June 2022, Amazon accounted for 37.8% of the U.S e-commerce market, and ships approximately 1.6 million packages daily. Products on this site range from every-day living supplies to high end technology and fashion. In the beginning stages of this project, we aim to uncover the reliance that users have on Amazon, their motivations, and pain points users experience regarding consumption via this site. We hope to propose design ideas that curb exuberant consumption and spending, and encourage budgeting, money tracking, and conscious consumption (skills that are necessary in becoming financially independent adults).

To do so, we will be targeting users of various lifestyles that utilize Amazon in various ways. Our user segments are as follows:

  • Parents
  • New Graduates
  • College Students

    • Breaking down users in this manner will help us understand varying motivations and user journeys, and even help pinpoint which users would benefit the most from focusing on conscious consumption. Understanding differing experiences with Amazon will help us gain wider perspectives on user behavior and possible pain points that we can specifically address throughout this project. As mentioned before, the tasks we aim to focus on during this project are money budgeting, tracking, and research on the goods and services being bought.

    Our team hopes this project not only has the potential to reframe our relationship with spending and drive ethical and conscious consumption, but also impact individual financial literacy and awareness within this country. Globally, our world is suffering from industries like fast fashion that manipulate users into spending fast and spending a lot, and we hope to address this endemic by designing features that specifically combat these realities.
    How might we foster a conducive environment for young working professionals to network and find job opportunities while preserving their overall mental state?

    Research

    Survey

    We conducted user interviews to eight individuals, with at least one person from each segment/lifestyle category. This priliminary analysis was to perform a more accurate data analysis on the spending habits and analytics of what product categories these indivdiuals tend to buy most from. A link to the spreadsheet with the anonymous responses for each individual can be found here.

    Questions we asked were segmented around four areas:

    Key:
  • Brown Highlight: Segmenting Takeaways
  • Pink Highlight: Key User Tasks/Behaviors
  • Red Highlight: Pain Points
  • Green Highlight: Wishes and Desires
  • Orange Highlight: Unexpected Behaviors

    Group 1: Quality of Time Spent on Amazon

    1. When you use Amazon, are you mindful of the amount of time you are spending on the site?
    Key Insights
    There were two observable key learnings in regards to quality of time spent on Amazon. Either users utilize Amazon exactly when they need it and spend no more than 20-30 minutes on the site, or they are users who tend to browse through the site. Browsing seemed to be a crucial task that was a part of many user journeys. It is noticed that it’s easy to get lost while browsing where oftentimes, users will go to an online site with a specific goal, but get lost due to the noise and product competition within the site.

    Group 2: Spending Habits on Amazon

    1. Do you find yourself overspending on Amazon? Why do you think that is?
    2. Are there specific seasons during the year you find yourself overspending on Amazon?
    3. How easy does Amazon make it to spend your money?
    4. Do you believe you are more likely to overspend when shopping in-person, or online? Why do you think so?
    Key Insights
    The key learnings in regards to spending habits and budgeting of our interviewees is that typically, users who are more mindful and intentional about their time spent on Amazon also tend to spend less on the site, and vice versa. Amazon leverages the variety of products they have on their site to promote upselling and product stacking, which leads to overspending.
    Generally, holidays, birthdays, and the like (seasons of giving) appear to be periods in which users admit to overspending, regardless of user segment. Browsing seems to be a critical task during these seasons - most users claim to be less intentional about their time spent browsing because they turn to Amazon to inspire gift-giving ideas.
    Another key learning is that most users tend to overspend when shopping online than in-person. This can be motivated by the pandemic, in which more people converted to being an online shopper. With the user interface, the design makes it easy and efficient to filter through products (by rating or price) and most of a user’s personal credit information is saved, so it is more casual to buy more items and not keep track of spending. Most subjects claimed that spending online leads to a detachment between the user and money, making it more likely to overspend. With recommendations provided on Amazon that tend to prompt users to look at more expensive products, rather than better deals/value, Amazon makes it incredibly easy to motivate users to buy more items. Amazon also has a very straightforward system to make it easy for users to make purchases by allowing multiple payment options, and with one swipe on a phone/desktop interface it leads to a direct purchase. The option to purchase is at every single step of the user journey, which further adds to the ease and convenience factor of online shopping.
    Product competition and continuous recommendations prompt users to be more inclined to make a purchase by promoting exposure of various products to users. One finding from the user research is that users who spend more time on Amazon tend to use the wishlist feature more, which promotes further spending because a lack of spending at one point can still point to a future purchase. Overall, users who spent more time on Amazon were more likely to say that they overspent online, and vice versa.

    Group 3: Product Categories on Amazon

    1. Do you find yourself shopping more for wants or needs on Amazon? Why do you think that is?
    2. What kinds of product categories do you think you buy most of off of Amazon. Are there any product categories you usually stray away from?
    Key Insights
    Through asking questions on product categories we found that users focused more on needs and daily supplies rather than wants on a regular basis. However during holiday/gift giving seasons, Amazon is used to drive inspiration of gifts and presents, but is often used more for inspiration and idea building rather than actual purchase. Users tend to stay away from clothing as the quality is not guaranteed from small brands or unknown retailers. They were more driven to buy specific items, especially electronics, during off season/promotion season as the quality is guaranteed from name brands. Finally, we found that users who spend more time on amazon are more likely to shop for wants and vice versa

    Group 4: Sentiment on Money Management Tools

    1. Do you use any tools to manage your budget? If so what is your favorite feature?
    2. Would a integrated budget tool in a online shopping website make you want to use their service more often?
    3. Would you use a money tracking or budgeting tool on Amazon?
    4. If you could wave a magic wand and develop a money tracking tool on Amazon, what information would you like to see through it?
    Key Insights
    For the questions regarding how users manage their budget, most users declared that they do not currently utilize money management tools. Rather, if they do, it is largely through their bank or individual Excel sheets. One user in particular stated, “I do not like to set a budget because it psychologically primes me to actually spend the budget that I set. Instead, I try to keep track of how often I spend and try to spend a little less than the month before,” which brings up an interesting point as users generally claimed they didn’t realize how much they don’t track their Amazon spending until they were asked in the interview.
    Users who did not spend much time on Amazon claimed that having a money tracking tool on Amazon would not affect their time spent on Amazon. However, frequent Amazon users claimed that having a tool would actually increase their time spent on the app as they would feel more intentional and less guilty about the time they spend browsing.
    If a money tracking tool existed, users want to make sure that tool was customizable according to their own needs - they do not want Amazon telling them how to spend. Those who claim they tend to overspend online are more inclined to have positive sentiment and demand for a money tracking tool as they tend to “splurge” more often. Users want to be able to set and customize a budget if a tool were to exist. Multiple subjects wanted a block on spending once that budget was reached. Specifically, users want to see how much they are saving each month. Typically, users are more motivated by positive reinforcement when it comes to restricting spending. Users want to see responsive, intelligent recommendations that are not simply geared towards more expensive products, but rather tailored to their budget and spending needs. Dynamic recommendations were also desired, for instance incorporating a filtering system that allows users to better personalize their management system according to financial status, income, expenditures, etc.
    Those who said they would use the money management tool also specifically stated they would use Amazon even more if the service was available which is significant because smart spending can mean more spending in the long run.

    USER PERSONAS

    sheila
    dude
    lottie

    • Design and Testing

    Usability Testing

    Low-Fidelity Prototypes
    Following Flow 1
    lowf1
    Following Flow 2
    lowf2

    For our user testing interviews we focused on using the Figma prototyping feature so users can have a more natural experience navigating through the different pages. We recorded each session on zoom and would either have them walk through the prototype itself or tell us exactly where they wanted to click on the screen. This second option was due to technical issues with some pages not appearing. The users we tested were taken from the local San Diego area from individuals we already knew. We got a representative sample of people similar to our personas, one for each. These being, a young new mother of one (following our persona Sheila Hernandez), a tech savvy engineer (following our persona James McDonald) and an older senior finance specialist (following our persona Lottie Boyd). These interviewees gave us insight as to what features attracted them most and which were harder to find or understand.
    Findings
    Starting with our first prototype following our flow 1, users seemed to enjoy features that catered automatically to their preferences. For example, the mother user really enjoyed product recommendations based on the budget she has set for herself as she can maximize her money effectively. The older specialist enjoyed the idea of automatic tracking of her expenses on the application itself as she usually does it through a spreadsheet manually. As for set 2 following our flow 2, 2 out of 3 users enjoyed the simplicity of navigating through the prototype itself. All users thought the initial budgeting home screen with the 3 links to expenses, time, and tips/goals to be very intuitive. Another plus of this set was the focus on goal setting. The tech savvy engineer likes the idea of having control over the goals he set for himself but with the guidance the rest of the features would give you.
    However there were negatives brought up through testing. Starting with set 1, all users had trouble finding pages related to their time activity. For this set we did not have a dedicated time activity page which made users want to select the hamburger menu to see additional options. Another issue we had was users not associating the more info button with any particular idea which we intended to be a behavior tracker that viewed your spending activity. As for set 2, users could not find any concrete way of editing their budget. 2 out of 3 users believed that it would be located in the goal setting page but initially had checked the expenses section. Overall in both sets the older specialist and the mother had trouble initially associating the budgeting section with the form/calculator icon and instead thought of clicking on the hamburger menu first.
    Most users had complete or partial preference for set 2. This was due to the general ease of use as they were able to access different pages quickly. They also mentioned that they understood and were more confident completing set 2’s tasks since they could pick up on the purpose of pages.
    High-Fidelity Prototypes
    high

    In designing our High-Fidelity flows, we referred heavily to the findings discovered during user testing with our low-fidelity wireframes - users prefer ease of navigation and seamless transitions between tasks. Overall, our second prototype reflected these strengths, but in our final design, we also decided to also attempt to emphasize app nativity so the transition to these new additions will not be as jarring for existing Amazon shoppers. Thus, we not only included a distinct navigation page from the second prototype, but also native links to our budgeting features through product recommendations on the home screen. Our aim to integrate both these experiences reflects both user friendliness as well as ease of implementation for Amazon.
    In our decision to draw strengths from both prototypes, it meant we had to be careful with thinking about how navigation to budgeting would be integrated into the current design of the app. When thinking about our user testing results, particularly when emphasizing user point-of-view, we knew that prioritizing specific tasks like being able to set a budget or view specific statistics. We realized that when users go through these features, they will have a specific end goal in mind, rather than be in a mindset for browsing/exploration, so we decided to integrate the budgeting icon into the task bar at the bottom, as well as have buttons to navigate to the features embedded into the product recommendation experience that typically lives on the Amazon home page as well - these were design choices that emphasized nativity within the existing app. As mentioned above, we also added a distinct menu page for users to quickly navigate to their desired section for budgeting and expenses without clicking through multiple pages or reports. The clearer their options for navigation are, the quicker and more effectively they can make them.
    Ultimately, we stuck to our overall vision that we planned in our next steps section in the previous milestone - primarily focusing on ease of navigation and customizability of a budget. We make it easy for users to set goals by integrating navigation to it in various locations, and also ensure the user remains cognizant of these goals throughout their shopping experience. We prioritized the second prototype while also integrating the strengths of the first prototype, and also focused on the fact that this flow should have specific tasks and objectives in mind in the overall design of the experience.

    Prototype Improvement


    We picked 3 participants for user-testing, each one a reflection of one of the user persona we created earlier. For all three user segments we had, ease of navigation was an essential need, and we wanted to focus on this element of the user experience when making improvements to our design. We also went in with the goal of understanding what metrics a user extracts the most value from - time or expenses - to focus on only one of them as our value add. We felt as though adding both proved to be a bit too noisy and confusing for a user encountering this experience for the first time.
    Overall, we found that all our subjects found our design easy to follow - nothing was lacking but there were design choices we could make that would make the flow even more intuitive. Adding in navigation to specific pages on more than one page was crucial, and was pointed out by every subject. It appeared to be a bit confusing if a user was on page A but wanted to be on page C, and had to go through page B to get there. Thus, we focused on improving navigation and click-rate to ensure that users could always get to their intended destination from whichever page they were on. This meant including an option to edit budget on both the Shopping Behavior, Tips/Goals, and Product Recommendation pages.
    Furthermore, when asking subjects about whether they would value time or expenses, there was unwavering support for expenses metrics. Users did not feel as though observing or tracking time spent was crucial for the messaging we bring across with these new features, as most of them are geared towards financial-based recommendations rather than time. Thus, we decided we would be excluding the time tracking page in our final draft.

    Updates

    Before and After
    lowf1
    From user testing we received some feedback regarding the recommendations under $30 section. One user suggested that it was too vague and not in line with the users goals while another user desired more options for the price point. We decided to incorporate both into our prototype by conforming the category to whatever the user’s current goals are as well as allowing the user to filter through different price points.
    lowf2
    Updated aesthetics to be very simple, incorporating natural tones without any overwhelming or extraneous design features such as the blue shadow in order to be more on brand to Amazon’s current design for application buttons. Emphasized the button names to be more eye-catching and readable.
    lowf2
    This simple change was made from feedback we got from a user stating that tips should be changed to guides as these pages would be longer articles rather than a list of quick bullet points.
    lowf2
    We received feedback from two users stating that they were confused that there was no way to set or edit budgets on the expenses page.We decided to replace the search bar with an edit budgets button so that users can easily switch between observing their expenses and editing their budget.

    Final Designs

    lowf1