Client Nazuby

Redesign towards sustainability

The original website had already undergone incremental improvements that gradually increased metrics such as speed, conversion performance and traffic. However, it was created at a time when mobile devices did not play a significant role, and therefore used only a fixed layout.

After initial analyses with the client, we identified several problems that had to be addressed during implementation:

• Without a transition to a responsive website, the site’s performance would begin to stagnate and eventually decline.
• The front-end of the original website was good and fast, but after initial analyses it was clear that it could not be effectively used for a responsive website.
• The client’s e-shop product range is sold by a huge variety of stores, from pharmacies to drugstores, and the product offering is also incomprehensible for a layperson.
• Virtually anyone connected to the internet could be a relevant customer, which is over 80% of the population in the Czech Republic alone.

Minimum-risk solution

The only limitation of the final solution was that it had to be a website/e-shop again, as it is the client’s primary and only sales channel.

We therefore built the strategy for achieving the project goals on:

1. Thorough analysis of existing data – competitor analyses, keyword analyses, heatmaps and scrollmaps from Hotjar, user data from Google Analytics, and business data from the e-shop databases.
2. Broad user research – in the first phase, qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews gave us design hypotheses (e.g. how people choose dental hygiene products). We then validated these with a sociologist from Masaryk University through 5 quantitative questionnaire surveys with over 1,200 respondents.
3. Intensive testing at all stages of design and implementation – we repeatedly tested information architecture and prototypes; we validated the visual style with emotion tests; and we used preference, five-second and question tests for testing graphic designs. We also tested a graphic prototype with real content and the finished website before launch. In total, more than 30 rounds of quantitative tests were conducted.

Design principles

Based on data analysis and user research, we arrived at several key findings on which we built our design decisions:

• We optimised category pages, product pages and the checkout process so that 80–90% of users could see key elements above the fold.
• Users are affected by significant choice paralysis in most product categories. In the new design, we therefore focused on:
• content strategy – editorial reviews, video tutorials, “how to choose” articles and similar,
• information architecture that, through its structure, category naming and brief explanations of individual categories in navigation hubs, helps users choose products,
• verified tips for those who don’t want to choose – the usefulness of these product tips is confirmed in every user test and in campaign data,
• and tools for narrowing down the selection – extensive filtering options, product comparisons and alternative categorisations in some main categories.

• Users are very conservative about the layout and content of typical e-shop pages. An example is the banner below the e-shop header, for which heatmap and Google Analytics data suggested it was unnecessary for users. We focused on this hypothesis during testing and found that people did not understand they were on the e-shop homepage because it did not match their expectations. We found more such cases. The result is that the layout and content are very conservative.

• Users are sensitive to font size and element contrast not only on mobile, but also on desktop. Higher-contrast and perceptually larger versions of the graphic design appeared clearer and more trustworthy to users during testing. These conclusions are also confirmed by user testing of the live website. Paradoxically, this view is not limited to older users (45+), but also younger users aged 25–35.

Interview: Winning project in the Most Effective Web Development 2020 category at WebTop100

Watch the interview with Nazuby.cz co-founder Jan Stejskal, project lead designer Jan Junek and Proof & Reason CEO Tomáš Izák on the occasion of winning the WebTop100 2022 competition.