Shop-alongs

Our weekly in-person user testing sessions were referred to as shop-alongs. We invited customers into the Jet research lab to shop the desktop and mobile experience. During this time they could also try new design flows and packaging concepts. Our main goal in a shop-along was to see if the customer understood Jet's main value proposition: prices drop as you shop. 

Jet research is unique for many reasons. The first being at least four shop-alongs happen every week. This frequency of user-testing is uncommon, but gave our team an advantage as we were able to uncover and improve bugs and pain-points in the experience quickly. 

Eye Tracking

During each session I set up the customer on an eye-tracking device. The red dot on the screen represents their eye gaze. What you see in this gif is what I saw on my computer while sitting next to the participant. By using the eye tracker, we were able to see if they noticed prices dropping while they shopped. The eye tracker allowed us to follow along with the participant and probe on things we observed. 

Slack + Real-time Site Improvements 

Shop-alongs were broadcasted live to an observer room connected to our "living room" lab. Through slack and e-mail announcements, we encouraged employees from all parts of the company to come watch. This way every one had a better understanding of who Jet's customers are. Developers would participate in the shop-alongs and fix bugs on the site in real time.

Our slack channel, "testingnotes" was a place for developers and designers to take real time notes on the shop-alongs. It was also a way for me to communicate with other researchers in the observing room. 

Living Room JetxLab

The Jet Research Lab is meant to look like a living room so the shop-along participant feels "at home" while shopping the site. 

Shop-along Insights + Outputs

After each session I was responsible for prioritizing and categorizing our findings and sending them to the whole company. From there, teams began to fix high priority insights immediately. The shop-along finding e-mails were also a way to share what was working well on the site. 

Additionally, I uploaded each session to the Jet Research video channel. This way anyone could go back and re-watch our participants shop. 

Shop-along Outcomes

The insights gathered from shop-alongs are a main driver in how the shopping experience improves. By moderating and sharing weekly discoveries, I contributed to improvements on our desktop and mobile experience. Additionally, I would spend time refining our research announcements and outputs. Our goal was to engage as many people as possible in shop-alongs. A main takeaway from my summer at Jet was that you have to have a deep understanding of your customer in order to design an outstanding e-commerce experience.