Reimagining Wayfair’s Search & Filter to streamline customers’ product discovery and search experience
Keyword Search for Wayfair
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Challenge
When it comes to shopping online for furniture and home goods, customers expect their experience to emulate that of in-store shopping. Because of the cost, longevity and decorative nature, retailers are struggling to deliver a comprehensive, streamlined shopping experience.
According to 1010data, Wayfair alone has dominated about 35% of the market in 2019. This unparalleled success has been possible because it offers a large selection that is impossible to replicate in stores and, in addition, it provides a seamless search and filter experience that caters to most, if not all, types of customers and their needs.
How can Wayfair enhance its search and filter method to help customers find products more effectively?
Challenge Overview
Tools
Figma, Whimsical, InVision
Design Scope
Developing a new feature for Wayfair’s mobile app and the related child pages on iOS
Duration
3-Day UI Challenge
10-13 April 2020
Exploration - Understanding the Problem
Process of Elimination
When customers shop for a particular product, they are likely to perform a process of elimination. They may start by conducting some research on the type of product, compare price and features of available options, and finally decide on the closest one to their desired criteria. Whether it be abstract or concrete criteria, customers navigate through the app with “the ideal product” in mind.
Features like “Room Ideas” and “Search with Photo” help match their aesthetic expectations with Wayfair’s available options, while detailed “Filter” and “Sort” tools help customers narrow down their options based on functional needs.
Process of Evaluation
The process of evaluation varies across different customers and depends on the product they are looking for. Some like to judge the value of a product based on the specifications and information provided by the seller/vendor, others may refer to customer reviews, and the majority is likely to rely on both means to make the final decision.
Exploration - Creating user flows to visualize the problem
Wayfair’s current infrastructure works very well when the customer is narrowing down her options from a broad category. However, I noticed that, when the situation is reversed, the Search and Filter tool becomes ineffective and ambiguous for the customer. In other words, the more specific criteria the customer has in mind for her “ideal product,” ironically, the more time she has to spend trying out different methods of elimination and yields ambiguous search results that dwindle consumer confidence.
To demonstrate the problem, I mapped user flows for two different product scenarios.
Scenario 1: A quiet humidifier for my baby
Scenario 2: Washable & odorless rug for my dorm
As you can see above, when the customer has determined concrete/functional criteria (“quiet” and “for my baby”) for the product type (i.e. Humidifier), she encounters dead ends because there are no relevant filters that she could use to narrow her research. She ends up relying on external websites to make her decision, which leads to a time-consuming and frustrating experience. It would be convenient if she could find and apply these criteria in the “Features” section under Filters.
Similar to the previous scenario, the customer has determined concrete/functional criteria (“washable” and “odor-free”) for the product type (i.e. rug) but encounters dead ends. She must either settle for other filters that seem “interesting” or manually go through the products one at a time. Her best bet is to look through the 117,470 results yielded from filtering her search by Rug Size because she is skeptical about the results yielded from her keyword search (i.e. “washable odor rug”).
Refinement - Developing solutions
After analyzing the customer’s journey based on their needs, I was able to frame two problems and determine solutions for each. Because Wayfair’s current Search & Filter infrastructure is optimized for broad to narrow search practices, when customers want to perform narrow to broad search practices, they are likely to encounter dead ends. Therefore, a systematic search method that includes specific and personalized keywords is crucial in streamlining their experience. Moreover, in order to instill confidence, Wayfair can then expedite the filtering process by explicitly labeling products based on the keyword location and relevance to product.
Refinement - Iteration
Paper Prototyping
I created quick lo-fi wireframes to visualize the feasibility.
Wireframing
Then, I mocked up Wayfair’s current Mobile App interface and modified the designs to create a new feature. Creating a mock-up of the Wayfair Mobile App gave me a better understanding of its information architecture, which is essential for developing a new feature and creating a cohesive infrastructure.
Assets Library
Designing on Figma
