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The who, what and why
behind customer content
As the Senior UX Designer in the Fashion Product team, my primary focus was the Fashion journey, but I was also responsible for the reviews and user-generated content journeys.
We knew ratings, reviews and social media images played a big part in online shopping, but we wanted to understand the who, what and why behind them. In Q3 2022, our core team initiated a user-centred discovery to find areas of opportunity and improvement. The goal: a tangible backlog of ideas that prioritised user outcomes.
- Client
- John Lewis & Partners
- Platform
- Omnichannel
- Focus
- Reviews & user-generated content
- When
- Q3 2022
At a glance
The problem
We didn’t know what users look for in a review, or why they leave one.
The idea
A double-diamond discovery to explore the problem broadly, then shape the roadmap.
The result
The business funded a new product team for ratings, reviews and UGC.
01: The problem
Reviews mattered. We just didn’t know enough about why.
Given the team’s other priorities, we hadn’t been able to investigate what users look for in a review, why customers leave reviews, or how vital peer-to-peer content is within a shopping journey. This project was the opportunity to explore and test our assumptions.
Senior UX Designer
Duran Searle
Core team
Product Owner
Rhiannon Hughes
Core team
UI Design Manager
Katrina Joseph
Core team
Senior User Researcher
Richie Kennedy
Core team
02: Approach
The Double Diamond
Its four stages let us explore problems broadly before refining solutions focused on user needs, giving us greater confidence in building the right features and shaping the product roadmap.
01 · Discover
Explore the current state
Competitor analysis, existing research, data analysis and a touchpoint inventory workshop.
02 · Define
Validate the patterns
User interviews, a survey and store visits, then prioritising the user needs.
03 · Develop
Ideate and prototype
How might we sessions, team votes, and an end-to-end prototype.
04 · Deliver
Test and validate
Usability testing with users, and validated needs for the roadmap.
03: Hypothesis
What we set out to prove
Due to
The lack of a deep dive into customer content across all touchpoints
We believe
A user-centred design process to better understand customers’ shopping habits, behaviours and pain points
Will result in
More data and confidence to prioritise and shape the customer journey
We'll know we're successful when
We understand customer interaction with reviews, UGC and social proofing across Omni, and have found opportunities at every touchpoint
Success metrics
01
Understanding across Omni
How customers interact with reviews, UGC and social proofing
02
Opportunities at every touchpoint
Areas of opportunity and improvement throughout the purchase journey
04: Discover
Exploring what exists today
We explored user interactions, behaviours and benchmarks for reviews, UGC and social proofing, gathering the data to inform every stage that followed.
01
Competitor analysis
As a wider team, we scored competitors on their use of reviews and UGC, noting likes and dislikes.
02
Research & data
Existing research, customer feedback and onsite analytics from Dovetail, Adobe and Content Square.
03
Touchpoint inventory
A 90-minute workshop with stakeholders across the business, mapping awareness, research, purchase and post-purchase.
Emerging needs, for example
“Ease and convenience of finding and digesting reviews. Understanding why to upload content.”
05: Define
Validating what we found
Working with Richie Kennedy, our dedicated researcher, we used interviews, a survey and store visits to test the themes from Discover and find the most valuable needs to pursue first.
6
Hour-long interviews
Reviewers from the last six months, aged 28–58
150+
Survey participants
Aged 25–75, on what makes excellent customer content
12
Opportunity areas
Grouped from every insight into themes
6
Top user needs
Voted on by the team for customer impact
Shared understanding
Everyone took notes
We invited the wider team and stakeholders to join interviews as note-takers, giving the business direct exposure to user needs.
Omnichannel
Store visits
We saw how customer content is displayed in store, and how Partners engage with and create it.
User story · Trust
“As a user, I want to trust the reviews I see throughout my John Lewis experience, so that I have faith the review is honest and the reviewer genuine, and can make an informed purchase decision.”
06: Develop
From How might we to a prototype
I ran ideation sessions with the wider team and stakeholders for each opportunity area. Everyone brought at least four ideas, then the team voted, and I refined and wireframed the strongest.
How might we
…enable users to trust the reviews they see throughout their John Lewis experience?
Why we prototyped a Samsung TV
I built an end-to-end prototype for desktop and mobile, tested with five users in a remote moderated test on 9 August.
01
Gender-neutral
A more realistic scenario for both male and female participants.
02
Rich in reviews
Technology has a higher coverage of reviews than fashion.
03
High ticket
Reviews play a more significant role on higher-ticket items.
07: Outcome
What changed
We uncovered six precise user needs and stories, each highlighting a specific opportunity area. All were tested and validated with users, with positive feedback from usability testing and stakeholders.
6
Validated user needs
Tested with users and stakeholders
12
Opportunity areas
A prioritised backlog for the roadmap
1
New product team
Funded for ratings, reviews and UGC
2 wks
My Reviews A/B test
Our first MVP, before rollout
08: Reflections
Looking back
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