Rethinking How to Track your Package

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Project

Create a package tracking page that clearly conveys the stages of the delivery process for large items but maintains enough flexibility to account for standard small parcel shipments as well

Highlights

  • Developing a project plan to align stakeholders around a conversation-led approach
  • Proposing a more consistent alert treatment based on urgency
  • Using quantitative (click tracking), qualitative (usability testing and card sorting), and competitive data to inform a solution
  • Creating a new form of copy documentation to help the engineering team streamline their implementation
  • Adapting our designs for app based on the user type and best practices
  • color-coded block layouts of six web pages with a corresponding key
    Competitive analysis of competitor’s information architecture for package tracking pages
  • picture of a whiteboard with text and an arrow pointing toward a screenshot from a word document of a script
    A whiteboard from a cross-functional conversation workshop and the resulting script
  • Rectangular blocks labeled with content and stacked to mimic the layout of web pages
    Content wireframes for the new track package page at all stages of the delivery process

A DEEPER DIVE

Background

Large items like sofas or appliances ship via freight, which is often an atypical experience for customers used to shopping online. Because of the complexities involved with shipping a large item, Wayfair has a significantly higher contact rate for these orders. Our task was to redesign the package tracking page to clearly convey what stage of the delivery process an item was in and ensure the user had the information they needed about what would happen next. The page also needed to be flexible enough to handle standard small parcel shipments that would arrive via carriers like FedEx or UPS.

Role: Content Strategist

Skills & Deliverables

  • Competitive Analysis
  • User Research
  • Content Wireframes
  • Conversation Workshopping
  • Variable Content Document

Process

I took a conversation-first approach to the redesign by leading a workshop designed to strip away digital elements and explore the conversation the page has with the user. I then conducted a competitive analysis to identify hierarchical trends amongst tracking pages. Leveraging all of this work as well as existing qualitative data, I crafted a set of content wireframes. My design partner used those wireframes to begin building high-fidelity mocks, and we collaborated closely to create a solution we believed was easy to navigate and best met our user’s needs at each stage of the shipping process. To test this, we then conducted a remote usability study, from which we identified opportunities for improvement. After further iteration to integrate our findings, we had final mocks and copy ready for development.

Results

The redesign of the package tracking page was put on hold when engineering resources were diverted to a higher priority project. We hope to see the page launched soon.