Strategy for Online Learning Options.
Duration
7 weeks
My Role
UX Research, Strategy & Design
The Business Problem
Joann’s customer base is ageing themselves out. They tend to be women 55 years and older. This presents itself as an opportunity for Joann to broaden their customer gap, particularly focusing on attracting a younger customer base.
"While the company has a rich heritage, it needs to connect with younger crafters and deepen its relationships with its traditional customers."-Neil Saunders, Managing Director, GlobalData
The User Problem
While conducting some initial desktop research, I came across 2 user types who are struggling with different problems.
User Type 1 Profile
Do It Yourself (DIY) Creative Individual – This user is 18-40, spends time online, and social media outlets, might be interested in sewing and/or crafting, jewelry making, etc. and finds some of those projects overwhelming.
User Type 1 Problem
There is a lack of a convenient hub for online learning options for DIY creative projects that are engaging and fun while being informative.
User Type 2 Profile
DIY Creative Entrepreneur –
This user creates and sells products related to sewing, crafting, jewelry, etc. and mainly sells the products online and social media platforms.
User Type 2 Problem
Promoting and having a broad exposure to sell unique DIY creative products can be difficult when trying to set oneself apart from others on online and social media platforms.
The Value Proposition
Online Video Tutorials and Virtual Classes on Joann.com and their social media pages featuring DIY Creative Entrepreneurs with a substantial social media presence that a younger demographic (8-40 yrs. old DIY Creative Individuals) would find engaging, and also create a mutually beneficial relationship that would promote DIY Creative Entrepreneurs who would find it beneficial to align their business with Joann, a national brand, for broader exposure.
Research
To test the potential success of the value proposition, I conducted further online research to understand habits of users.
of millennial users watched YouTube in the past year to learn how to do something new or learn more about something they're interested in.
In addition, I conducted user interviews for both user types to uncover the kind of frustrations DIY Creative Individuals and Entrepreneurs were dealing with and how they were attempting to solve their problem, their needs and goals.
Discovery & Insights
Common frustrations for DIY Creative Individuals:
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Not knowing how to make or complete a creative project.
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Overwhelming amount tutorials online and sifting through to find quality ones.
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Limited amount of time to learn how to do some creative/sewing projects.
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Carving out the time to go to a class on location.
Common goals for DIY Creative Entrepreneurs:
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Break through the clutter of competitors.
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Elevate their craft and grow their business.
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Broaden their exposure and customer base online and on social media platforms.
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Align with brands that can elevate them and give them more credibility as experts in their craft and field.
Initial Design Process
After the proposed value proposition, I moved on to build Personas for each user type to further focus in on the goals, needs and frustration of users.
Joann Online Learning Options Evaluation and Heuristics Review
I evaluated the current online options available to Joann customers and conducted a heuristics review on their online learning options on their site. Their options were limited to very few video tutorials and only on-location classes. Also, there were no reviews found on any of the tutorials, making me wonder if anyone is using those tutorials at all. Most of their learning options are available on location, which is not an attractive option to the younger target. It also took several steps to find those few videos and on-location classes.
Competitive Analysis
To work on a solution for users and to set Joann apart from their competitors, I conducted a Competitive Analysis of Direct & Indirect competitors to find out what relevant competitors who offer creative supplies retail options were offering online in the context of DIY creative project online tutorials and classes during April, 2019. The goal was to also learn if any of them were targeting a younger demographic (age 18-40) through video tutorials or virtual learning in a way that would attract that demographic where they tend to spend a lot of time – social media platforms, especially Instagram.
The marketplace revealed that there were several business models out there that could compete with Joann in offering customers similar products. However, Joann stood out from their competitors when it came to offering a vast selection of products related to sewing, crocheting, embroidery, etc. When in came to online learning options, there was a mixed bag of options out there – not all necessarily ideal for the targeted demographic. Some of their competitors mainly offered online lists of directions to learn how to make DIY projects, if any, and were not very active on social media where it counted, such as Instagram.
The Opportunity
Joann can set themselves apart from their competitors
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Incorporate a mutually beneficial platform where they offer trending, younger DIY Creative Entrepreneurs who have a substantial following on social media platforms, like Instagram, a broader online exposure by being featured in tutorials and/or virtual classes on a national brand’s site, Joann.com.
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The DIY Creative Entrepreneurs would be able to present a bio and link to their site on the Joann site to increase sales of their products.
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The DIY Creative Entrepreneurs would also be assigned a unique promo code to offer to their followers on social media to purchase product on the Joann site. In turn, it could help Joann funnel in a new, younger demographic of DIY Creative types to their site where they can watch those online tutorials or virtual classes hosted by DIY Creative Entrepreneurs they admire.
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While on the Joann tutorial page site, the DIY Creatives watching the tutorials can find it convenient to purchase their supplies on the tutorial pages from Joann. It could be a win, win, win situation.
Value Innovation
To demonstrate the value of the proposed solution, I developed storyboards to reflect both user experiences.
Moving forward, after developing the Personas, Storyboards, Value Mapping to set phases for the user journeys, mapping the user journeys to pinpoint experience optimization, I focused the scope on the video tutorial feature to create an MVP, and held off on designing the feature for virtual classes for a later point in time. The vision statement would inform the next steps of user epics & user stories and guide the design of the new site feature.
Vision Statement
This phase for Joann.com project will attract a younger demographic user/customer by adding a video tutorials section, listing items for purchase with featured tutorials, and implementing personalized promo codes.
Measures of Success
Increase these Outcomes:
UX KPI's:
Younger Users (Marketing & Engagement)
Pageviews – landing page/tutorial page featuring the
DIY Entrepreneur tutorial
Attention Minutes – a) watching tutorial
b) scanning listed supplies under tutorial
Happiness Rating – a) tutorial content
b) finding the listed supplies for purchase in tutorial page
Share Videos (Engagement)
Attention Minutes – finding share option/button
Happiness Rating – rate desire/likelihood to share tutorial
Watch Other Videos (Engagement)
Pageviews – click rate on watching videos other than featured tutorial, by same DIY Entrepreneur and by other DIY Entrepreneurs on other pages
Attention Minutes – time spent watching tutorials
Ease of Use (User Experience)
Time on Task – amount of time to add desired supplies to cart for checkout
Task Success – a) adding selected items to cart
b) proceed to checkout
Happiness Rating – expedited step of finding the desired supplies with tutorial for expedited checkout
Likelihood to Recommend – rate featured tutorial page vs. skip rating step
Sales (Conversion)
Likelihood to Take Action – purchase any of the supplies listed in tutorial using featured promo code
Share Promo Code (Conversion)
Likelihood to Take Action – shared vs. didn’t share tutorial
Next Steps of Design
Once that strategy for the MVP was set, moving forward with that strategy, I designed low-fidelity Wireframes for the Joann site to incorporate Video Tutorials while using UX lenses to think through the benefit for users of different elements of the screens. Then the video tutorial screens were built to include Annotated Task Flows to show user paths of DIY Creative Individual & the DIY Creative Entrepreneur screens.
Results & Projected Results
The strategy and initial designs were reviewed internally and were well received. The next step was to conduct usability testing for evaluation of success as set forth by the UX metrics and iterate to improve on those findings. The projected results of incorporating video tutorials and virtual classes featuring influencer DIY Creative Entrepreneurs would attract an additional younger demographic and besides optimizing the user experience, it would also elevate the brand while increasing revenue.
UX toolkit
Voice Recorder, Google Docs, InDesign, Sketch, Powerpoint, Zoom