Conversational AI Gift Finder
Enhancing the user experience by helping
customers find the perfect gift through an engaging and personalized interaction through Artificial Intelligence.
My Role
Experience Designer
Team
3 Product Managers, 3 Designers, 6 Engineers
Timeline
8 Weeks
Overview
Problem
The app's generic gift suggestions often lead to user frustration, disengagement, and high abandonment rates. Users have diverse preferences, behaviors, and goals, and a one-size-fits-all approach fails to meet individual needs effectively.
Outcome
To address this issue, we aimed to create a Conversational AI gift finder that personalizes recommendations based on user inputs and behavior.
Understanding the Problem
Business Problem
01
Generic Suggestions:
Users often received generic gift suggestions that did not align with their specific needs and preferences. This led to frustration and dissatisfaction.
03
User Engagement:
The lack of personalized and engaging interactions resulted in user disengagement and high abandonment rates.
05
Time Consumption:
Users desired a quicker and more efficient way to find gifts. The existing process was often time-consuming and cumbersome.
02
Diverse Preferences:
Users have varied preferences, behaviors, and goals. A one-size-fits-all approach failed to cater to individual tastes effectively.
04
Decision-Making:
Many users found it challenging to choose gifts without personalized recommendations, leading to decision fatigue and potential drop-offs from the app.
06
Relevance:
Users wanted recommendations that were relevant to the recipient's preferences, occasion, and budget. The existing system often fell short in providing this level of relevance.
Goals
Personalization
Tailor the gift recommendations based on user inputs such as relationship, age, interests, occasion, and budget.
Interactive Experience
Create an engaging and dynamic interaction that feels like a conversation, making the process more enjoyable and less burdensome.
Efficiency
Provide quick and real-time suggestions to help users make decisions faster.
User Satisfaction
Enhance overall user satisfaction by offering relevant and personalized gift options, leading to higher engagement and lower abandonment rates.
Storyboard
Scenario 1
Opening the Gift Finder within the app and starting the chat about looking for a gift for your grandma who loves animals and that your budget is $300 and having the experience serve up recommendations. .
Scenario 2
Asking for more details on one of the recommended products and having the experience serve up the ease of use rating and top features of that product.
Scenario 3
Asking what others think of a particular product and having it serve up ratings/reviews summary.
Scenario 4
Adding the product to the cart and "making a purchase."
Validating with customers
An unmoderated usability testing has been conducted with users to evaluate two product variations (like size, color etc.) with gift finder. The goal is to identify any usability issues and gather feedback to inform the ideal user experience.
Objectives
-
Evaluate the effectiveness of Gift Finder in helping users find and narrow down on a product selection3
-
Determine the usability of browsing and choosing product attributes (e.g., size and color)
-
Compare the usability and user satisfaction between the two design variations.
Feature Overview
We are testing two patterns
a. using existing product cards to expose variations, grouped in carousel
b. using a new product card design to list out variation facets like a PDP.
Tasks
Participants completed a series of tasks while their screens were recorded, and they answered post task questions
regarding the mobile experience via a design prototype.
Task 1 | Find gift ideas Start browsing for products that suit your friend s interests.
Task 2 | Narrow down products Browse Apple s tablet options.
Task 3 | Choose size (Current design) Find and choose the largest storage option available for the iPad mini.
Task 4 | Choose size (New design) Find and choose the largest storage option available for the iPad mini.
Existing Product card design
New Product card design
Research Findings
Evaluate the effectiveness of Gift Finder in helping users find and narrow down on a product selection.
While nearly all participants successfully found Apple gift ideas, some participants faced challenges narrowing down
to see iPads.
16/17
Able to find Apple gift ideas for their friends with ease
12/17
Able to narrow down to ipads with ease using prompt suggestions.
Some participants failed to accomplish this task because they were unfamiliar with the name of Apple's tablet product
Determine the usability of browsing and choosing product attributes (e.g., size and color).
While most participants successfully found the 512GB iPad Mini with the product card design, most participants struggled
to find it using the product carousels.
14/17
Found 512GB iPad Mini with ease using New
product card design.
6/17
Found 512GB iPad Mini variant using the product carousels.
Those who failed did not find the “Options for Mini
prompt suggestion, so
they did not see the product card.
Compare the usability and user satisfaction on between the two design variations.
Browsing product
More customers prefer the product card design when browsing product variations.
47%
8 users prefer new product card design
29%
5 users prefer current product card design
24%
4 users prefer both
Purchasing product
More customers prefer the product card design when browsing product variations.
53%
9 users prefer new product card design
29%
5 users prefer current product card design
18%
3 users prefer both
Participants feedback on Gift finder
"I really like the idea of the Gift Finder . I think it s a super helpful feature for people who are trying to decide on the right gift".
"I liked it very much. Works well and makes it easier".
"This was a new and innovative survey".
"It was fun trying this feature out!"
"WAY too slow, and the whole conversational nature of it is just silly. I’d much prefer traditional filters to this AI crap".
Key Takeaways
Evaluate the effectiveness of Gift Finder in helping users find and narrow down on a product selection.
Finding
While nearly all participants successfully found Apple gift ideas, some participants faced challenges narrowing down to see iPads.
Recommendations
-
Improve Prompt Suggestions: Refine the prompt suggestions to be more intuitive and contextually relevant.
-
Gather Additional Data: Current user interactions with suggestion prompts vs input field.
Determine the usability of browsing and choosing product attributes (e.g., size and color).
While most participants successfully found the 512GB iPad Mini with the product card design, most participants struggled to find it using the product carousels.
-
Improve Carousel Design: Add visual indicators to signal that more options are available horizontally. Update product card width to give more affordance to horizontal scroll.
-
Prioritize Popular Variants: Simplify the display of pro duct variations by highlighting key options first.
-
Enhance Prompt Visibility and Clarity: Make prompt suggestions more prominent and visually distinct.
-
Improve Prompt Suggestions: Refine the prompt suggestions to allow users to target results by specific attributes. Make prompt suggestions more specific and actionable. Ensure that search results prominently display the requested variants.
Compare the usability and user satisfaction between the two design variations.
More customers prefer the product card design when browsing product configurations. More customers prefer the product card design when purchasing a product.
-
Increase Visibility of Variants: Ensure all options are visible within the viewport and that the interface remains intuitive and easy to navigate. Improve visibility of variations within carousel.
-
Use Recognizable Patterns: Continue using familiar design patterns that users recognize and trust. Ensure consistency in layout and interaction elements wit the PDP to maintain a seamless user experience.
Next Steps
01
Sharing the insights with stakeholders
03
Prototype the latest designs and conduct additional usability test to validate the changes.
02
Design iterations based on prioritized recommendations