Mobile Strategy Pt 1: Big Wins - Progress Now?

Software improvement (Archived)
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1

I realise this is a long post/s, but I am confident that @MyriamBoure can read, understand and synthesise for the rest of you in less than 5 mins :wink: so don’t freak out

Big Questions:

  1. Should we do anything about mobile UX / customer shopping experience now - are there quick wins? medium wins? work worth doing
  2. How are / should we be dealing with ‘own brand’ shopfronts - embedded shop can get us so far, do we need to be separating into api-led independent shopping experiences (have now separated into another post to streamline / clarify discussion)

Drawing on

I have created a google slideshare for easy viewing / commenting on the main issues that emerged

In my view:

  • many of the issues in the spreadsheet are on all platforms, exacerbated in mobile - so no point just doing quick-fixes on mobile
  • A number of these issues relate to front-end-wide UX fixes, which should be considered as part of full ux priorities (e.g. slides 5, 6 and 7)
  • most quick-fix for mobile issues don’t seem particularly high priority against all the other things we’re trying to do

HOWEVER there are some things I think we should progress now:

There is one issue that looks like a possible mobile quick win (if all are agreed it’s a good idea) - make unfilled panels in checkout default to open in mobile (slide 6)

There are some issues that affect both mobile and desktop for which we could get LARGE customer experience improvements from likely relatively manageable dev work, if that dev work follow good design. These are the issues identified in slides 2-5:

  • header generally (including content tabs) and especially in mobile (slide 2)
  • shop listing: (slide 3)
    • remove duplication / wasted space in names; add +/- buttons for adding products to cart
    • remove ugly grey lines and make more colourful - less ‘accounting’ in mobile
  • cart icon to checkout - is it big enough, clear enough, should it be sticky at top of mobile, buttons removed when empty etc
  • filters / search (slide 4)

In relation to these - I have checked with @yuko and she is available and keen to work on this - so I would be tentatively proposing that as MINIMUM we get her to redesign headers and shop listing for better useability, maybe also dropdown cart, positioning/stickiness of filters

Reasons I think we should do this:

  1. We can invest in design work without diluting our limited dev pool and focus on spree upgrade
  2. We have just done a lot of work with Yuko (and @kristinalim who is just commencing work with OFN) on the CERES responsive redesign and I suspect a lot of the research (3.g. close examination of farmdrop other food platforms etc), thinking and work can be reapplied. Much more to do but a huge jump forward for them - you can look at members.ceresfairfood.org.au Please don’t order, this is live)
  3. If we agree on an api focused strategy and are ultimately looking to separate front-end and/or complete overhaul of shopping experience, it is a lot of work and will take a while. Mobile is top priority for a lot of people and fixing these key issues will get us big ‘happies’ and ‘make what we have great’ kudos while the bigger darker jobs take place. We could also be doing more ‘extraction’ / ‘code preparation’ with any work we do on the front-end / shop in the meantime - so we’re clearing the way for that change if we make it
  4. There are resources available specifically for investing in this

If people agree that we can and should move ahead with redesign work for shopping / customer experience - what should the scope be?
a) the key issues highlighted above
b) the whole thing (shopping … not proposing include directory question, but probably include listing views as they are UGLY especially on mobile)
c) somewhere in the middle

Big Question 2: Embedded Shops / Standalone Front-Ends via API

next post . .

2

Welcome back @Kirsten :slight_smile:
I for one am very happy to have you freed up and back onboard with this kind of stuff.

So, to summarise what you have above:

We can do a smallish number of things to improve the mobile UX (and bonus also the desktop UX), that will make the embedded shops work on mobile, and also create a far better mobile experience.

We can do this as a stepping stone towards the bigger desire to improve the end to end shopping experience.

Delivery of this would be via a team of Yuko and Kristina, who can work fairly independently (code review, testing time, and Kristina onboarding will still be required) in achieving these as quick wins.

That all sounds good to me in theory. In practice, we would need to understand how much of the broader pipe would be taken up doing this (e.g. do we need to find someone with decent Angular experience or can Kristina do it all? And how will we onboard Kristina and potentially one other onto the codebase, especially given Rob and his angular skillz will not be available moving forward).

We’ll be looking at the size of the pipe and what we can fit in and making some pretty tough decisions about what we realistically can prioritise and deliver for the rest of the year. Discussion about this piece of work can be part of that. Thus, your timing on all the detail is perfecto :ok_hand:

3

I know we need to improve mobile - but am wondering if there are some UX things that will improve both mobile and desktop/latptop shopfront? It seems to me that searching, filtering, and multiple ways to find products, find products from particular producers, find products without scrolling… would all be things to delight our users. So from the slide deck - I see these finding/filtering improvements as high priority. I also have been thinking of heading back to the two funders here who have contributed to development and spree upgrade, and seeing if I can engage them in a partnership to do some UX work. I have no idea of these things - what would be the cost of a UX overhaul that did everything in the slide deck for mobile, but also addressed some of our shopfront wishes??

4

My 2 cents on this @Kirsten would be, as we have many priorities in parallel, to start with a “minimum scope for users to be happy enough” so it can be what you identified + maybe some complementary suggestions from Yuko if she says “you REALLY need to work on that, this is shit shit shit”. But also maybe some of the things you identified, Yuko will say it is still acceptable and maybe not the most urgent things. SO I’m happy to trust Yuko judgment. What I would suggest is to list them all in a backlog, and draw a line where we want to stop at iteration one, and what we keep for iteration two and further on improving mobile UX, and just prioritise for now iteration 1 :slight_smile:

5

I know this is difficult because we haven’t scoped out the extent of the UX work we might do - but to help get funding for this (and I think its quite ‘sellable’), I need to know a rough size of the thing. How far would, for example $20,000 get us? Is it at all possible to do an ‘options’ paper on UX? Starting with ‘minimum scope’ as @MyriamBoure says above? I think we could do a ‘survey’ of a sample of current users to get this. I’m not sure how I can help and support this though until I have an idea of the cost. Then I can look for funding.

6

@Kirstencan Yuko give an estimation?

7

Yes waiting on Yuko. Was hoping to get something before she went on holiday but seems that she ran out of time. She’ll be back in a week or two

8

I updated the slideshare by the way, based on scoping discussion with Yuko. I shared it in the #mobile-ready channel on Slack (which anyone interested should join) and can also be accessed here

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and here is Yuko’s plan https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10I8-3mRjxnPUXtEk04X3UERVPEPvqPjrEdF37_1KpmE/edit?usp=sharing

10

The"mobile ready" feature is being implemented, in delivery, so closing this exploratory / inception topic. If when done there are still some unmet need new wishlists will be open to be prioritized.