Coppel Mobile App
Mobile UX
Usability Testing
A quick win for a shopping app, tested with 8 users
NEORIS presented a UX challenge to Coppel, and our team had to show how we work: find one quick win in its shopping app and prove it with users. I designed the high-fidelity prototype on my own and took part in the review and the tests.
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
July 2023
Team
NEORIS UX team, with dev and QA
Tools
Figma
Miro
Maze
Problem
Where a sale is won or lost
Coppel’s app does many things, but its main job is selling. So we focused on the purchase flow: friction there means abandoned carts, and a smooth purchase builds trust in the brand.
The rules: one quick win, an agile process, and proof from users.
Our first notes in Miro.
Desk research
Why frictionless navigation matters
Outside research supported our focus on navigation in the purchase flow.
74%
of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand if its app is seamless and easy to use
94%
of people value easy navigation in a website
Sources: Google/Greenberg, mApp vs. mWeb study, US, 2021 (n=2,411). Clutch, website features survey, US (n=612).
Process
Four steps, one quick win
The same agile process our team would use on a real project, with the time and people we had.
Our process, in four steps:
Understand
Replicated the purchase as a customer and mapped the journey.
Define
Reviewed the flow against Nielsen's 10 heuristics and rated each issue.
Ideate
Prioritized with an impact/effort matrix and picked the quick win.
Validate
Tested the prototype with 8 users in 6 exercises.
Journey
Shopping like a customer
We went through the purchase of a voltage regulator as a customer would, from search to order tracking, and mapped what a shopper does, thinks and runs into at each stage. Most problems clustered in search, comparison and evaluation.
Proto customer journey map of the purchase flow.
Questions we wrote down as shoppers:
Search
“In which department or category will I find what I’m looking for?”
Compare
“Where did the navigation go?”
Decide
“Were my products added to the cart?”
Order
“Are all fields mandatory?”
Heuristic review
13 opportunities, rated by severity
We reviewed the flow against Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics and rated each issue from 0 to 4. These four shaped the design.
Severity 3 · Major
The way home kept moving
What we saw
The Home button started in the bottom bar, then jumped to the top deeper in the flow.
Design response
The quick win: one fixed bottom navigation bar.
Severity 3 · Major
Did it go in the cart?
What we saw
People had to open the cart to check that a product was added.
Design response
A numeric badge on the cart icon.
Severity 2 · Minor
Deals hidden until the end
What we saw
The discount percentage only appeared on the product detail page.
Design response
Discounts shown right in the results.
Severity 2 · Minor
Icons without words
What we saw
People did not recognize non-standard icons without labels.
Design response
A short label next to each one.
Prioritization
From 13 opportunities to one quick win
We placed every opportunity on an impact/effort matrix. Inconsistent navigation stood out: it affected the entire flow, and fixing it took little effort. That made it the quick win.
Impact/effort matrix with the 13 opportunities.
Key decisions
Show the discount, not just the price.
Why
People anchor on the first number they see. Showing only the price hid the savings.
Principle
Anchoring and Framing
Evidence
7 of 8 users preferred the redesigned offer cards.
Fewer subcategories, grouped with icons.
Why
Long, flat lists made people weigh too many options at once.
Principle
Choice Simplicity
Evidence
6 of 8 users found the right category with the new grouping.
Show that the product is in the cart.
Why
People had to open the cart to check that a product was added.
Principle
Recognition over Recall
Evidence
A numeric badge on the cart icon. It answers a severity 3 issue from the review; not tested on its own.
Validation
Testing the prototype with 8 users
6 exercises with friends and family: first-click tests, preference votes and task-based tests with heatmaps. These three taught us the most.
First-click test
Where would you look for a printer?
Task
“Your printer broke and you need a replacement soon. Without using search, which category would you pick?”
6/8
picked the new group, “Accesorios y componentes”, on their first click
We merged 11 subcategories into 6 and gave each one an icon. On ease, 4 of 8 rated the choice 5 out of 5, and nobody rated it below 3.
Choice Simplicity
Current
11 subcategories in one flat list.
First clicks
Where people tapped on the proposal.
Proposed
6 groups, each with an icon.
Preference vote
Which screen shows the offer better?
Task
“You are browsing regulators and UPS units. Which of these two screens shows the offers in a more comfortable and specific way?”
7/8
preferred the proposed offer card
The proposal shows the discount as a percentage and replaces the red price, so the saving is the first thing people read. On ease, 6 of 8 rated the choice 5 out of 5.
Anchoring and Framing
Current
Price in red, discount not shown.
Proposed
“30% de descuento” next to the price.
Votes
8 of 8 users answered
Proposed
7 of 8
Current
1 of 8
Task-based test with heatmaps
Can people find a computer from Departments?
Goal
See whether people find what they are looking for, and which paths they take to get there.
31 s
on average at the Departments level, against 3.6 s and 3.4 s on the next two
The first level was the bottleneck: most people went to Computadoras, some to Electrónica. Once inside, each step took under 4 seconds. One user said: “It’s easy, just a bit repetitive to tap Computing and then tap again to select that department.”
Information Scent
Departments · 31 s
Taps spread across two departments.
Category · 3.6 s
One clear target.
Subcategory · 3.4 s
One clear target.
What testing changed
Users put the cart back at the top
We moved the cart to the bottom bar, within thumb reach. In testing, 5 of 8 users preferred it at the top, where they expected it, so we moved it back and kept the numeric badge.
Before
Tested: the cart in the bottom bar.
After
Final: the cart at the top, with a numeric badge.
Impact
Validated with 8 users, in 6 exercises
Measured
7/8
users preferred the redesigned offer cards
6/8
users found the right category with the new grouping
Observed
Heatmaps showed the main bottleneck: 31 s on average at the Departments level, against about 3.5 s at the next levels.
5 of 8 users preferred the cart at the top, so the final prototype keeps it there.
What I learned
A small test still changes decisions
8 people were enough to change where the cart lives. Test early, even with a small group.
Preference is not performance
Votes show what people like. Next time, I’d add time on task to compare both versions with stronger numbers.
AI usage
What I’d do with AI today
In 2023, AI tools were not what they are today, and this study ran without them. Now I’d use them to get more out of the same research, and still check every output against the raw data.
Next steps
What a real rollout would need
The challenge ended at validation, so we couldn’t measure results in production. With a rollout, this is what we’d track and do next.
Measure
In Google Analytics: bounce rate, pages per session, session duration and transactions, plus cart abandonment and conversion in the purchase flow.
Example of a Google Analytics ecommerce report. Not Coppel data.
Rework categories
The Departments bottleneck points to information architecture: card sorting to regroup and relabel.
Test deeper
A larger group, and a comparison of the current and proposed versions with time on task.
TL;DR
The short version
Problem
A UX challenge for Coppel: find one quick win in the app’s purchase flow and prove it with users.
Review
We walked the purchase as customers and found 13 usability opportunities, rated by severity.
Quick win
One fixed bottom navigation bar, plus clearer offers, categories and cart status, in a prototype I designed.
Impact
8 users, 6 exercises: 7 of 8 preferred the new offer cards and 6 of 8 found the right category.
Next steps
Validated, not shipped. For a rollout: track abandonment and conversion, and rework categories with card sorting.
