Project Overview

 

Background

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company which focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world", and is one of the world's most valuable brands.

Problem

Amazon Returns process currently lacks clarify and appears confusing to users which result in numbers of calls and complaints. Once users initiated a return, they will be presented with a summary page. The summary page is inconsistent across the board from email communication, devices, and more.

Scope: Responsive Design

Skills & Tools: Sketch, Figma, UI Design, UX Design, Prototyping, User-testing, User Research

Timeline: January 2022 - Present

Responsibilities and Process

1. My role as a UX designer

I was introduced onto this project right at the beginning. For the first 6 weeks, I was a sole UX designer on the project working from sketching to low-fidelity wireframing. I presented my designs to Amazon stakeholders on a weekly basis.

2. Moderated Usability Testing

As we iterated and arrived at a stage where the designs are ready for a usability research, a researcher conducted 30 moderated tests with 50% happy path and 50% complex scenarios on both mobile and desktop devices.

3. Data-driven designs

Once data was available, I implemented appropriate changes to the design.

4. Localization

Then for the next few months we finalize the design and localize the post-return experience to integrate into 7 different Amazon marketplaces around the world.

5.Multi-Lingual Moderated Testing

We worked closely with the Amazon global teams to help us with another round of moderated usability testing in different languages while we conducted tests on English speaking marketplaces. Together, we were able to gather more than 72 moderated sessions in 7 languages.

6. Research Analysis & Final Design

We found interesting insights that showed cultural differences and barriers. I was responsible for analyzing this data and presented to Amazon stakeholders to confirm the need to improve this experience. I also found key insights that would be a benefit to Amazon’s goals of reducing the number of customer calls and providing more opportunities to upsell/cross-sell.

Design Process

Research

  • We set up a screening process to find both Amazon customers who have returned in the past 6 months and customers who have never returned before, to go through current and proposed experience on mobile and desktop versions

  • We learned that users have expressed confusions with the post-return process which results in complaints and customer service calls

  • We conducted 30 moderated usability tests comparing the current return experience and the proposed design. 95% of participants prefer the new design with more positive content, friendly interface, and easier navigations.

 

Define

Project goal

Amazon return team is proposing a new post-return experience which includes 4 new pages. Customers will have the most accurate information about their return at one place, presented in a visually delightful manner. With improved transparency and consistent return tracking information, customers will never need to contact customer support to know what happened with their return. Our goal is to deliver a better and efficient experience for customers while maintaining the business goals of increasing revenue and traffic to the e-commerce site.

Ideate

Low-Fi Wireframes

Mid-Fi Wireframes

Hi-Fi Wireframes

Bar Raiser

Customer Experience Bar Raiser or CXBR

 

Amazon has a unique process to make sure their customers receive world class experience. Before any designs get published, they go through many rounds of CXBR. The bar raiser gives feedback from a new perspective and many years of experience. Every time we come out with a new design, we make sure to get their feedback and make adjustments to improve the overall experience.

CXBR helps us think globally (i.e. icons can be very useful for communication, but selecting one that can be used universal can be challenging as some cultures are more sensitive to some).

Research Analysis

Together with Amazon internal research team and our team, we were able to conducted moderated usability testing in 7 languages with over 72 sessions. I worked on the analysis of this research and found helpful insights for both design and business goals. Because of this research, it validated the need for the post-return experience to be improved and reevaluated. We received an approval to move forward with the design and will be rolling out the new experience by the end of 2022.

Takeaways

Lessons Learned & Impact

Throughout the design process, I have received feedback from both Amazon team and customers confirming the need for a change to make Amazon Post-Return Experience frictionless and more clear to not only reducing customer calls, but to provide an accessible experience to all customers. I, personally, as a designer have learned to communicate my design ideas and proposal in a way that is helpful and valuable to the team and project timeline.

Like any projects, we have faced many challenges from the timeline limitations, Increase in scope, lack of a product manager, to marketplaces’ cultural differences. If I could do this project again, I would make sure our team has a clear goal, good communications between designers, stakeholders, and engineers, and allow more time for explorations.

Overall, we delivered a successful Post-Return Experience that will help customers return their items with ease and be more efficient. At the same time, we succeeded Amazon’s business goals in upselling and cross-selling through recommendations.

IT IS LIVE

IT IS LIVE

Amazon Post-return experience is live and you will be able to see the update when you initiate a return