Style vs Inseam
Revise the men’s underwear experience to accommodate a new site strategy. Update the product nomenclature from style name to inseam length while ensuring users can still find their preferred style.
OBJECTIVE
CONTRIBUTION
Led the user research & analysis to assess whether this strategy would have a positive or negative impact on the browsing experience. Communicated with stakeholders the test plan, timeline & findings. Provided recommendations on alternative and interim solutions.
Platform: Web Tools: Sketch, UserZoom, Dynamic Yield Date: 2021 - 2022
OVERVIEW
Typically, the underwear assortment is separated by style (e.g. Brief, Trunk, Boxer Brief) or fabric-type (e.g. Cool Cotton, Second Skin). As the brand evolves, the goal is to be well-known for key products.
The Boxer Brief is a more notable underwear styles from the brand. In this new strategy, stakeholders proposed consolidating 4 of the underwear styles (Square Cut, Trunk, Mid Length & Boxer Brief) into 1 main style, the Boxer Brief.
Tommy John is known for their underwear & fabrics.
With this approach, users would no longer have the option of choosing one of these styles, but rather select an inseam length from Tommy John’s Boxer Brief (e.g. 2”, 4”, 6”, 8”). In other words, a customer who usually purchased a Trunk, and visited the site, would need to recognize that they are now a Boxer Brief customer that prefers a 4” inseam length.
ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES
Our hypothesis was that return users would experience some confusion with the revised nomenclature, particularly if there was no acknowledgement/educational component while browsing. While setting up the studies it was also important to understand how much of a consideration inseam length was to users shopping for men’s underwear. Previous research identified style, fabric & color as main considerations, but not inseam length.
The goal of the studies were to understand how new & return users would receive the approach.
Studies were set up through UserZoom, a UX research platform. The studies were mainly usability focused with questionnaires before & after tasks to gather more information. We screened for both new & return users and tested experiences through mobile & desktop. In order to create an experience similar to the new strategy, a staging environment of the men’s underwear assortment was built to include the new nomenclature. As an example, product names with the style Trunk were updated to read Boxer Brief 4”.
For the initial questionnaire, we asked participants to rank their top 3 considerations when purchasing men’s underwear. “Inseam length” was included as a choice.
For the usability portion of the study, users were asked to browse the men’s underwear category. For return users, we asked which underwear style they purchased from Tommy John. Before browsing the site, we then asked return users to find the product they’ve purchased before. Unknown to participants, the site was updated to include the new nomenclature. Once participants completed the task, we provided a final questionnaire to rate their experience
THE RESULTS
73% of return users struggled to find their underwear style when product names were updated.
In some instances, return users assumed they chose the correct pair when, in actuality, they chose a length shorter or longer than their preferred style. Others assumed their style was no longer available since they could not find the correct style name.
In addition, when asked whether inseam was a top consideration, 72% of participants stated that inseam length was not a top consideration for men’s underwear. Of the 28% who did consider inseam length when shopping for underwear, their reasons mainly had to do with choosing the correct option for their height or purchasing for a specific occasion (e.g. running).
After communicating these findings, stakeholders decided to hold launching this new strategy, but to continue our research with educational components to assist users with this change. As an initial phase, we proposed maintaining the style name for men's underwear but to include the inseam length within the name (e.g. Trunk 4”). This would allow users, specifically return, to become familiar with the measurements that matched their style preference. Since launching this update, conversion has been maintained at 5%.
