Apparel Brand Study

May 2023

Company: Harley Davidson Collections

Timeframe: 1 month

Role: Primary UX Researcher

Stakeholders: Director of UX, Director of eCommerce

Methods: Brand perception, Usability testing

Tools: UserTesing.com, Google Sheets

The Process

Project Description

A large apparel company wanted to better understand brand perceptions and improve its reach to consumers in adjacent brands.

UserTesting partnered with this company to evaluate the current experience as well as understand product and brand perceptions.

Research Objectives

The company aimed to answer the following research objectives:

  • Explore the end-to-end shopping experience

  • Identify any usability pain points, confusion and bugs

  • Identify brand and product perceptions

  • What could be done differently that would make this a product or brand for consumers?

Approach: Unmoderated Brand Testing

I decided that an unmoderated branding test would be the most effective approach to gather feedback given the desired timeline and number of participants that we wanted to hear from.

Participants were screened through UserTesting.com using the following criteria:

  • Age: 18-45

  • Income Range: $40k-$150k

  • Gender: 40% men, 60% women

  • Geographic location: United States

  • Web expertise: 6 desktop/9 mobile

  • Additional requirements: Trendsetters

The audience was skewed female as the company found that their customers were often women and mobile users.

Test Details

In the unmoderated sessions, participants walked through the live website to complete tasks such as finding a particular product or category of product then adding it to the cart, providing thoughts on the visual elements of the website, and overall thoughts on the brand. We evaluated verbal, written, verbal, and multiple choice responses to better understand their experiences and perceptions.

Excerpts from test plan

Analysis

My process involved pulling out positive and negative feedback to uncover deeper, big-picture themes to help the team better understand areas of opportunity. For this project, I collaborated with a researcher to support the analysis process. The raw data output from UserTesting.com already includes the task number and task description along with participant details; provide context and effective delegate, I also created an “Analysis” column which details what to be looking for when reviewing the session videos. We mainly focused on pulling themes from the objective tasks, which were highlighted for ease in the analysis framework.

Throughout the analysis process, we also collected meaningful feedback through quotes and curated clips to highlight important themes in the final deliverable.

Example of the analysis framework

Outcome

Findings

The brand and product appeal received positive feedback from participants. They appreciated the inclusiveness and diversity of the models, as well as the versatility of the clothing itself. However, some drawbacks included the product pricing and relatively small product range. Participants were interested in seeing discount codes which has become the norm and stakeholders also recognized the need for a “good, better, best” tiered pricing model to appeal to prospective customers.

There were also some usability concerns which the team hypothesized, however the overall sentiments were positive and validated the direction the company was headed in.

Examples of detailed findings slides

Reflection

What went well:

  • Assessed facilitators and shortcomings of the shopping experience based on user behavior, offering recommendations to guide development.

  • Understood users’ overall brand and product perceptions, branding potential could reach the right audience with current roadmap given more awareness.

What could be improved/changed

  • Dedicate more time to democratizing research and educated larger team of non-researchers the importance of UX research.

  • I would have enjoyed the opportunity to test evolving designs to see the impact of the research and collaboration.