Case Study -01: GKSI Karate Website Design

Project overview

Portfolio-01

The product:

GKSI Karate is a regional fitness chain located in the suburbs of Mumbai area. This fitness studio provides all kind of fitness activities like Karate, Gym, Yoga, Zumba etc. They offer a wide spectrum of competitive fitness activities. GKSI targets customers like students, working people who lack the time.

The problem:

Students and working professionals and homemakers want to learn Karate or other fitness activities even when they are at different location due to their professional commitments. Also want to buy items for Karate training.

GKSI Karate website
GKSI Karate website

The goal:

Design a GKSI Karate website to be user friendly by providing clear navigation and offering a fast checkout process.

My role:

UX designer designing the GKSI Karate website design from conception to delivery.

Responsibilities:

Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs and responsive designs.

Understanding the users

User research: Summary

Conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m
designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research
was working adults who don’t want to miss their physical activity even when they are at different location due to work commitments. 

This user group confirmed initial assumptions about GKSI Karate customers, but research
also revealed that location was not the only factor limiting users from booking class.
Other user problems included buying Karate dress and other gears for practice. However, many shopping websites are overwhelming and confusing to navigate, and not provide authenticate Karate gears which frustrated many target users.

User research: Pain points

Navigation

Karate (Fitness) website designs are often busy, which results in confusing navigation.

Interaction

Small buttons on shopping websites make item selection difficult, which sometimes leads users to make mistakes.

Experience

Other Karate or Fitness websites don’t provide an engaging browsing experience of online class booking, fees payment and Karate gear shopping.

Persona: Yukta Sharma

Problem statement:

Yukta is a busy working adult who needs easy intuitive website navigation and search filters because they want online shopping to be stress-free and access to fitness class options even if she is on different location, training time and fees pending info with facility to download fees receipts.

Persona: Yukta Sharma
Persona: Yukta Sharma

User journey map

Mapping “Yukta Sharma” journey revealed how helpful it would be for user to have access to a dedicated Karate/Fitness website with shopping option.

User journey map: Yukta Sharma
User journey map: Yukta Sharma

Starting the design

Sitemap

Difficulty with website navigation was a primary pain point for users, so I used that knowledge to create a sitemap.

My goal here was to make strategic information architecture decisions that would improve overall website navigation. The structure I chose was designed to make things simple and easy.

Site map
Site map

Paper wireframes

Next, I sketched out paper wireframes for each screen in my app, keeping the user pain points about navigation, browsing, and checkout flow in mind.

The home screen paper wireframe variations to the right focus on optimizing the browsing experience for users.

Paper wireframe
Paper wireframe

Paper wireframe screen size variations

Because GKSI Karate customers access the site on a variety of different devices, I started to work on designs for additional screen sizes to make sure the site would be fully responsive.

Paper wireframe - Different screen size
Paper wireframe – Different screen size

Digital wireframes

Moving from paper to digital wireframes made it easy to understand how the redesign could help address user pain points and improve the user experience.

Prioritizing useful button locations and visual element placement on the home page was a key part of my strategy.

Digital wireframe
Digital wireframe

Digital wireframe screen size variation(s)

Digital wireframe screen size variations
Digital wireframe screen size variations

Low-fidelity prototype

To create a low-fidelity prototype, I connected all of the screens involved in the primary user flow of adding an item to the cart and checking out.

At this point, I had received feedback on my designs from members of my team about things like placement of buttons and page organization. I made sure to listen to their feedback, and I implemented several suggestions in places that addressed user pain points.

Low-fidelity prototype
Low-fidelity prototype

Usability study: parameters

Study type: Unmoderated usability study

Location: Mumbai, remote

Participants: Five participants

Length: 20-30 minutes

Usability study: findings

These were the main findings uncovered by the usability study:

Cart: Once at the checkout screen, users didn’t have a way to edit the quantity of items in the cart.

Checkout: Difficult to write information every time. Users want previous saved info for faster checkout. Users weren’t able to easily copy the shipping address information into the billing info field.

Account: During the checkout process, there wasn’t a clear way for users to log in to their account to pre-fill previous billing and shipping info.

Refining the design

Mockups

Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to improve the site’s checkout flow. One of the changes I made was adding the cart section in main page itself so people can check the other options as well instead of separate overlay window previously. This allowed users more freedom to add other items in the cart which was not possible in previous overlay window.

Mockups
Mockups

To make the checkout flow even easier for users, I added a check box that allowed users to use the same address which you use previously. Add a new address button in case you need other delivery address.

Mockups
Mockups

Mockups: Original screen size

Mockups original size
Mockups original size

Mockups: Screen size variations

I included considerations for additional screen sizes in my mockups based on my earlier wireframes. Because users shop from a variety of devices, I felt it was important to optimize the browsing experience for a range of device sizes, such as mobile and tablet so users have the smoothest experience possible.

Mockups screen size variations
Mockups screen size variations

High-fidelity prototype

My hi-fi prototype followed the same user flow as the lo-fi prototype and included the design changes made after the usability study, as well as several changes suggested by members of my team.

High-fidelity prototype
High-fidelity prototype

Accessibility considerations

  1. I used headings with different sized text for clear visual hierarchy.
  2. I used landmarks to help users navigate the site, including users who rely on assistive technologies.
  3. I designed the site with alt text available on each page for smooth screen reader access.
  4. Used icons to help make navigation easier. Usage of branding colors.

Takeaways

Impact:

Our target users shared that the design was intuitive to navigate through, more engaging with the images, and demonstrated a clear visual hierarchy.

What I learned:

I learned that even a small design change can have a huge impact on the user experience. The most important takeaway for me is to always focus on the real needs of the user when coming up with design ideas and solutions.

Next steps:

  1. Conduct another round of usability testing on the new website to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.
  2. Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features.

Let’s connect!

Thank you for reviewing my work on the GKSI Karate website.

If you’d like to see more, or would like to get in touch, my contact information is provided below:

Email: suvratk@suvratkotia.com

Website: www.suvratkotia.com

Resume: Suvrat Kotia resume

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