Abstracts Category : Other

Improving User Experience (UX) through web redesign: a case study of Asian Food Mar-ket Oys webshop

by Bao Hoang

User Experience (UX) has become recognized as one of the most important attributes of de-sign disciplines for digital services and products. UX is extremely important for small and startup businesses since their websites are the primary means of communicating their ser-vices to their customers and responsible for forming initial impressions. Having an interac-tion-rich site guarantees customer attraction and positions the company above other com-petitors. The thesis concept was proposed to Asian Food Market Oy, a small retailing business of food and beverage in the Espoo region. The purpose of the thesis project is to introduce UX Design theories to the company by assisting them in evaluating current customer behaviour, providing appropriate suggestions on how to enhance their website design based on the research results, and by providing redesigned website wireframes to demonstrate the proposed changes. Knowledge required for the topic is based on theoretical background with regard to the UX concept and UX Design principles. The thesis report offers a brief overview of the develop-ment of UX terminology, discusses five UX elements and their components in detail and the UX Design concept, and presents two of the most well-known UX design approaches: Agile and Lean UX. Four important attributes which a well-implemented UX Design must obtain value, adoptability, desirability and usability - are also discussed. The methods used in this thesis project include interviews and other qualitative research methods, such as personas, customer journeys, heuristic evaluation and usability testings as well as website wireframe building to propose the suggested changes. The research results indicated serious vulnerabilities that can affect or interfere with UX when visiting the webshop, which the company had yet to identify due to the lack of spe-cialization and familiarity with UX Design in particular, or website design and related topics in general, and was utilized to manifest the most prominent changes interpreted on the wireframes. UX optimization cannot be constrained within any particular development phase, as it should be continuously improved throughout the process. Therefore, the recommended im-provements should be executed as early as possible since the webshop is already publicly published for customer use. Furthermore, a designated professional should be in charge of constant supervising, managing and refining the UX to enhance the close relationship with loyal customers further and engage new ones.