Bos Creek Meats
Website Heuristic Evaluation and Design Recommendations
July 2014
Methods Used
Recorded cognitive walkthrough/
think-aloud, Heuristic Evaluation, Task analysis, Wireframing, high fidelity prototyping, Customer journey mapping, Information architecture diagrams, Content audit
Bos Creek, based in Oakland, California, was a small business pledging to deliver premium organic meat to customers’ doorsteps. Entirely based online, the company wanted to ensure quality customer experience on their site. In the summer of 2014, I presented them with a full heuristic evaluation, or usability report, that revealed the sites’ strengths as well as areas of improvement with redesign recommendations.
The report included an overall heuristic analysis of the site, detailed task analyses with diagrammed journey maps, and redesign recommendations. Unfortunately, the website has since been closed. However, if you'd like a better sense of the company, below is an intro video from the company.
The evaluation began via a recorded cognitive walkthrough of the site using the think-aloud method. Done in the stages of early familiarization with the site, this was able to reveal initial impressions and confusion that would be had by new/potential customers.
It would have been preferred to use a focus group of testers, however, due to constraints of time and money, this option was not available. Instead the initial evaluations of myself and four other teammates were synthesized to mimic an objective focus group.
Once an initial evaluation was complete, basic tasks and services of the website were identified. These were then used to establish deeper task analyses and evaluation.
While Bos Creek did not provide specific customer personas or points of concern, initial conversations revealed two important things that allowed for structured analyses. The first, that stakeholders were passionate about their company and were looking to the report for any and all advice for improvement. The second, that their relationship with the product was what differentiated them, making it important to prioritize learning about who they were for new customers. Identifying these, and considering the customer personas simply as the new and the returning customer, helped to shape the tasks analyzed.
Using these two points to structure the final report helped to communicate to the stakeholders of Bos Creek the significance of the content that they were sharing on their website. Bos Creek had quality content, for both new and returning users, and the shopping process was relatively straightforward and uncluttered. However, when analyzing the site through the individual user journeys, it was revealed that existing content needed to be restructured more strategically and additional information pertinent to the purchasing decision needed to be made available.
In a final presentation to the CEO, report findings were discussed along with an interactive prototype of redesign suggestions. The suggestions were made in such a way that, without a large drain on limited resources, the new company could grow and provide a high quality service equal to the meat they served.
first slide of final presentation
Process slide from presentation
BC task analysis example
first slide of final presentation