3D Printing Tech and Voodoo Manufacturing quoting tool redesign
3D Printing Tech is based in Atalanta, Georgia and began business in 2015. In August 2020, they acquired a second 3D printing company, Voodoo Manufacturing based in Brooklyn, New York. 3D Printing Tech’s client base has been largely business to business, while Voodoo’s was more focussed on hobbyists. While attempting to combine the two brands, they implemented a quoting process on both sites. They began to experience large drop off rates on both sites, and they suspect the quoting tool to be the reason.
Background
My fifth and final team project during UX studies at General Assembly. There were four team members including myself. The project was completed over a three week time period. Our goal was to determine the cause of the customer drop off rates on both websites by conducting research, and to design a solution that addresses the problem.
My Role
I contributed to all phases of the project, from research to design, to deliverables. I was a bit more hands on in the visual aspect of the design phase. My research contributions were.
• Usability testing
• User interviews
• Affinity mapping
• Competitive analysis
• Creating user personas
Our Tools
Research Process
My team and I used several research methods to determine the problem customers were experiencing with the quoting process on both websites.
Data Analysis
We took a look at Google analytics for both sites and discovered that the bounce rates were related to the 3D printing service sections. This seemed to confirm the clients suspicions that customers were leaving during the quoting process.
Competitive & Comparative Analysis
We analyzed several other competing 3D printing companies’ websites: Craftcloud 3D, Xometry, Shapeways, and Kickr Designs. We went through the quoting process on each site to learn how they’re going about it.
We then looked at sites like Amazon, FedEx, and Etsy to analyze their checkout processes.
Usability Testing & User Interviews
We conducted usability testing and user interviews with six people. I conducted two rounds of each myself, and my teammates did the rest. From the data collected, we created an affinity map and narrowed the most common issues down to four key takeaways.
Key Research Takeaways
After determining what the users pain points were, our next steps were to create our objectives, problem statement and user personas.
The objectives we aimed to reach were to make the quoting process more understandable for users, regardless of their prior 3D printing knowledge. We did this by adding copy to help guide users through the process. We also created a new style guide by combining colors from the two websites.
Problem & How Might We Statements
User Personas
Two user personas were created based on our research. They represent two demographics that are likely to visit the websites for different reasons. Our primary persona, Charlie, is a marketing manager with no prior 3D printing knowledge. He is in need of a large order of promotional items for an upcoming work event. Our secondary persona, Katie, is a hobbyist with plenty of prior 3D printing knowledge. She is wanting to print a figurine and she values quality over time frame and wants the process to go as smoothly as possible.
Primary User Persona
Charlie is new to the 3D printing process, but he has been provided with a file to upload. He uploads the file, then goes through the quoting tool to complete his order.
Secondary User Persona
Katie is familiar with the process, so she logs into her account and bypasses the quoting tool.
The Design Process
After defining the problem, creating user personas and having clear objectives in place, we began moving forward with the design phase. The goal was to provide ease and clarity throughout the entire process. We wanted the user to feel confident that they were making the right choices every step of the way.
Design Opportunities
Moscow Map
We had a lot of ideas that we wanted to incorporate into the design. But with limited time frame and scope, we needed to narrow it down. We created a Moscow map to help focus on what was actually needed to achieve our goal.
Wireframe Sketching
We began the visual design by sketching our wireframe ideas out on paper. The concepts focus on the user’s journey through our simplified design ideas. Below are a few of the sketches I did for the design.
Low Fidelity Prototype
We took the ideas from our sketches and began building our low-fi prototype in Figma. Our first design featured a priorities page between the home page of the website and the quoting tool.
This page is still under construction. More to come!