Kahila
Kahila is an all-inclusive buoyant protective case that delivers the ability for consumers to engage in water sports without the fear of losing their apple watch to the sea. Unlike competitors such as Life Proof and Otter Box in the outdoor electronic protection market, Kahila provides an athletic watch band that has the ability to both satisfy protective needs and function as a lifejacket for any sized apple watch.
UX Research & Design.
Our client requested my team’s help in designing a website to aid in the launch of their product. Along with creating a website, we also took on the role of UX designers and researchers, aiming to get a better understanding of their target audience and testing how they interact with the prototype.
Below is a list of the UX deliverables we gave Kahila after our preliminary UX research.
Discovery Brief & Project Overview
Competitive Analysis
Analytics & Insights
User Research Report
Consumer Insights Report
User Personas
Technical Requirements
Site Maps
Wireframes
Discovery
Brief &
Project Overview.
Discovery Brief:
Kahila is a new company whose product has yet to hit the market. There is no knowledge of the product within the community of potential customers, which poses both a challenge in that there is no existing data on their success, but a great opportunity to start off strong as a company.
Project Overview:
The goal of our collaborative project is to gain insights on the target audience to preemptively determine what they would value out of a product like Kahila and create an interactive e-commerce website that meets the Kahila and their users’ needs. Kahila’s website will present information on the product and founders of the company, in a comprehensive manner that makes purchasing decisions easier. The information presentation will also take users with lower levels of familiarity with water sports
Competitive Analysis.
Below are examples of two direct competitors as well as reviews from users about their experience with the company’s product.
Apple.
As the “name brand” and originating company of the Apple Watch, Apple has a competitive advantage due to their name recognition. Besides their brand awareness, their active response to reviews, thorough and informative product page, and mission to create a great commerce experience gives them a strong advantage. Because they are a larger company, they’ve been through the testing phases before, and are quite comfortable with launching a new product and persuading consumers to purchase their products. However, there are disadvantaged as well; after conducting our user research, we found that many consumers are unhappy with the price point of Apple’s watch bands and would prefer to support a smaller company or start-up. Consumers are also concerned that many of the bands aren’t as durable, or “environment-proof” as their competitors.
Otterbox.
Otterbox is the next most popular company to sell Apple Watch bands. Known for their water-resistant, shock-resistant, and drop-resistant cases for mobile devices, it makes sense that they would be the next popular company compared to the founding one. However, much like Apple, consumers often critique the high price point of their products. After a market analysis, it appears that Otterbox is able to get away with the high price of their products, because of their brand recognition and the fact that Apple doesn’t offer such bands. They are the most well-known brand to offer “environment-proof” gear for mobile devices. This is where they are disadvantaged; yet, many consumers end up settling for the high price, because of the year-long warranty the company offers. This allows users to replace their product if it gets damaged in any way if its under warranty.
Analytics & Insights.
Since Kahila is a new company and just received its patent, they had zero online presence: no social media, no website. This was a challenge, because we had no analytics or digital insights to analyze. However, it was also a great opportunity to take the results from our competitive analysis and predict what insights would be important for their website.
Insight 1: SEO.
SEO (search-engine optimization) is important for most companies to be aware of; however, it will be crucial for Kahila as they start out. As of now, no one knows who (or what) Kahila is. Meaning, it’s integral to optimize the copy used throughout the website, so Kahila content pops up in online queries when users search for key words (i.e. “Apple Watch water-proof band). It will also allow us to utilize Google Analytics to determine what SEO pairings are proving to be the most successful .
Insight 2: Reviews.
Reviews go hand-in-hand with SEO. Specific words consumes use in their reviews are likely to be the terminology potential users would use in their search queries, making it crucial to include authentic testimonials in the website. Along with purposeful copy, it’s also imperative to include different forms of media accompanying the reviews, showing the product in action, since many potential consumers will likely not have heard of this product before.
Insight 3: Google Analytics Prep.
In preparing to launch the website, one of the most important access tools to take advantage of is Google Analytics. By setting up the tool before the product is launched, Kahila will be able to gain access to their analytics right from the beginning of their company’s start, which is not an advantage many companies are able to have had. By embedding the Google Analytics code on each of the webpages, Kahila will be able to tell which pages users are interacting with, including the final purchasing pages. Not only does this help developers learn which webpages get the most traffic, but it will show them if there is a problem with one of the ecommerce steps. If there is a lot of traffic leading up to one of the ecommorce pages, but then it stops, this could indicate that there is an issue with that specific page. This will allow Kahila to trouble-shoot and create the best ecommerce experience for their customers.
User Research Report.
This report synthesizes the user research conducted in the ethnographic interviews, gives insights into how these qualitative observations can impact Kahila as a startup, and outlines how these observations will affect the design of the website prototype. This report serves as an internal document for the team.
Consumer Insights Report.
This report “translates” the findings in the original report into a document that is client-facing. This document was designed for the stakeholders at Kahila, which is why a lot of the jargon was swapped with more user-friendly terminology, and more explanations were given for concepts that our internal team already understands. Just like the user research report, this document outlines how the user research affects the company as a whole and helps shape the website.
User Personas.
Our interviews supported our hypothesis that domain expertise (in other words, familiarity with the niche industry of water sports) and user roles (how the person identifies with that industry) are the two key user variables that determine whether a potential consumer would consider purchasing a product like Kahila.
With the findings from the interviews in mind, we created the following personas:
Online Shopper.
Anne Whitmore is a 40 year old public school educator and mother of two who does a large amount of her shopping online. She only shops for her clothes online, but is open to buying people’s gifts online, too. She needs a lot of information when purchasing a gift, and will start with a person’s interest if she knows them well. She tends to buy nice gifts for her family or close friends, but she does not put as much effort on people she does not know as well, such as coworkers.
When it comes to accessories for electronics, like an Apple Watch, she is comfortable buying accessories either made or endorsed by the product manufacturer. She can be convinced to invest in lesser known, independent brands if they are highly rated and if the company's story is compelling. For product reviews, she finds written reviews more thought out than video reviews, but would prefer to view special functionality afforded by an accessory in action. For products not found on larger ecommerce websites like Amazon, she prefers if product listings showed more information since she is not yet familiar with the brand. When she shops online, she prefers purchasing products in the same window you view it in, since it saves her a lot of time when she plans on buying multiple items at once. She may also consider buying a product she initially researched as a gift for herself if its features fill a need she has.
Water Sports Enthusiast.
Our second persona is Jose Calderon, a 28 year old part-time Masters student, who enjoys scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming and surfing. When engaging in water sports, he uses his Apple Watch to track his statistics; he does not worry about losing his Watch as he has AppleCare insurance incase of loss. For Watch accessories, he prioritizes the silicone band, as a cloth band as it would stay wet all day and felt like the leather strap would deteriorate over time. He dislikes the cost and limited variety of accessories Apple sells, and is open to purchasing from independent retailers. He is interested in purchasing cost-efficient straps available in a variety of colors, and is open to investing in a strap that provides unique benefits to water sports in general.
His online shopping habits are research-focused. He refers to a website known to review all forms of technology that can aid with athletic training. Jose prefers referring to third-party websites as he finds information to be less biased. He also prefers to use websites such as Amazon, as they allow him to compare products. Price is his number one deciding factor, and Jose likes to cross-check the internet for any discount codes or wait for annual sales. When shopping from an independent company, Jose looks out for customer reviews and media coverage to confirm the authenticity of the brand.
Technical Requirements.
Ecommerce Capabilities.
In the initial briefing, Kahila stakeholders shared that they would like the launch of the website to coincide with the launch of the Kahila store. Meaning, that the moment the website goes live so does the ability to purchase their product. Because of this, it’s imperative that ecommerce function is the highest priority of technical requirements for the website. Our user research showed that users want an efficient, seamless ecommerce experience, in which they can easily look through the digital catalog, select the items they want, and make a purchase. Because of this, one of the most important design elements is the ecommerce backing of the website and the “SHOP” page. Users need to be able to look through the products easily and quickly select which items they would like to purchase.
Site Maps
Site Maps list out the key pages needed in the website (and where they will be located), the relationships between the pages (meaning how they are linked to one another), and the navigation structure of the website.
Below is further description of specific areas of the site map coinciding with their assigned numbers.
1: The “introduction” page does not appear in the navigation bar, but can be accessed via the homepage. It gives more information about the company as a whole.
2: Unlike the “introduction” page, the “about” and “shop” pages can be accessed in the navigation bar at the top of the page.
3: The “product story” and “founder story” can be accessed via the “introduction” page. They give further insight into the backstory of the company and brand, but are not crucial enough for the average user’s experience to be integrated into the primary user flow.
4: When the user clicks on a specific product on the “shop” page, they are taken to the “shop landing” page, which lists out the different products and their different size/style options. At the bottom of the “shop landing” page will appear a “recommended & recently viewed” section to encourage users to peruse more Kahila products.
Wireframes.
Wireframes provide a more detailed view of the content that will appear on each page than the site map. It outlines what content will be placed where. Below is the finalized wireframes our team came up with when designing the Kahila website prototype.
Homepage
About
Shop
