WAYFAIR - FIELD STUDIES

USER INTERVIEWS, OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES, AND DATA ANALYSIS

The Challenge

Understand what factors influence the behavior of online shoppers and identify areas where online and in-store shopping can converge.

The Process

Methodology

• A 4-member UX research team collaborated with Wayfair to design and conduct 14 field studies

• We conducted observational studies and interviewed shoppers from Utah, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Upstate New York.

• Our team followed a 4-step process: Documentation, Field Study, Data Analysis, and Results

Research Questions

The purpose of this study was to find answers to three research questions:
1. How do shoppers use technology to increase confidence when making purchases online and in-stores?
2. How do shoppers decide what will look good in their homes?
3. What do shoppers feel they need to buy in stores rather than online?

My Role

• As a single point-of-contact between Wayfair and my team, I regularly interacted with the stakeholders.

• To understand what had already been explored before, I conducted an in-depth literature review.

• Collaborated and designed a research proposal, participant recruiting screener, consent form, observation guide, and interview questionnaire.

• As a UX researcher, I conducted observational studies and interviews at participants’ homes and also accompanied them at physical stores like Kohl’s and At Home.

• I also shared videos and photographs of the field studies. These gave us with a well-rounded perspective to compare in-store and online shopping behaviors.

The Study

• Of the 14 participants, 8 were observed as they shopped online while 6 were observed and interviewed in-store.

• Each study lasted an hour and was split into 3 sessions: 1) 5-10 minutes introduction, 2) 35-40 minutes observation, and 3) 10-15 minutes interview.

Data Analysis

• Our team used Otter and Zoom to capture what the participants said, video-recorded the sessions, and also wrote down detailed notes in our observation guides.

• The qualitative data was then coded into insights across the shopping experience and mapped back to our research questions. 

• We created a virtual whiteboard on Mural and used Affinity Mapping to analyze and meaningfully categorize online and in-store data points.

• The categories for data analysis included pre-shopping behaviors, decision making, shopping behaviors, price consciousness, payment methods, etc.

Results

• Categorizing the data points and affinity mapping helped us focus on insights, present clear and actionable results, and find answers to the 3 research questions.

• We also created a 62-page research report that included an executive summary, research questions, literature review, methodology, and suggestions for further studies.

• We summarized our findings and successfully managed to present them to all the stakeholders at Wayfair.