Shein Website -
UX Audit
UX Audit, Web, Research
Inspect the general user experience for desktop version to eliminate usability issues.
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Project Overview
Shein is an e-commerce website for which I conducted a UX audit. However, because there will be no user testing, I will rely solely on my UX skills, understanding, and research of the product to find UX solutions. I will evaluate the desktop version of the website, specifically the main navigation, drop downs, and the home page itself.
Roles
UX Auditor, Researcher
Tools
Figma, SEMrush, Similarweb
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1.0 Understanding Requirements
By understanding the requirements we can evaluate the issues and their impact to the business and the user.
1.1 Problem Statement
Shein is growing in popularity, but there are some aspects of the website that need to be improved because they do not provide an effective user experience and are still receiving criticism on the user shopping experience.
1.2 Objectives
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Inspect general user experience for Shein to help understand the website better and eliminate usability issues.
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Make recommendations and explain how they will be implemented.
2.0 Research
To effectively analyse the user experience, gain an understanding of the business values and target audience.
2.1 Understand target audience
With 10M visits, the website has a bounce rate of 57.17% with an average visiting duration of 17 minutes. The bounce rate tells us that 57.17% of the visitors leave the website without interacting beyond the landing page, which is worrisome as the average e-commerce website bounce rate is 45%, according to hotjar.com. Shein can decrease this rate if they provide a better user experience that encourages visitors to engage with the site.
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The main target audience are ages between 18-34 with 61.26% female and 38.74% male audience. Shein is said to focus on millennials and Gen Z shoppers, implying that the age group they want to target is between 9 and 38. According to these statistics, they have been able to attract visitors within that age range but anyone over the age of 34 is not visiting as frequently as Shein would like. Their target of attracting Gen Z appears to be working, as they attract 26.30% of visitors aged 18-24. Although the e-commerce website is aimed at both men and women, the current audience appears to be more female dominated, implying that Shein is not effectively showcasing their products for men.
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2.2 Competitor Analysis
Boohoo and ASOS are competitors of Shein as they all are companies in the fast fashion e-commerce industry and have similar target audiences and business goals of offering trendy clothing at affordable prices.
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3.0 UX Evaluation
Following the ideas from The Norman Nielsen’s Heuristic evaluation framework, I identified the issues I noticed in the main navigation.
3.1 Navigation Page
Navigation
Findings
Navigation Default
Navigation Women Tabs
Navigation Women Clothing
Navigation Women Tops
Navigation Notification Banner
1.0 - NOTIFICATIONS
This is a company notification/message, and while it is standard e-commerce to place it below the main navigation, having it on top is also acceptable. However, it is in a larger font size than the main navigation, implying it is more important for users to focus there.
1.1 - OVERLAPPING
On this page the less important information is aligned with the main navigation and overlaps the essential tools.
1.2 - MULI-LEVEL TABS
Multi-level tabs are not appropriate because there are multiple tabs that a user might be interested in but are only shown a limited amount. The user would have to click the arrow to see more. Most users, including myself, may not notice this at first and hence will not be introduced to the remaining tabs. They most likely would click on the main tabs and hope for a drop down menu, which would take the user off their journey and redirect them to another page and cause frustration.
1.3 - HOVER MENU
Hovering over the secondary navigation tabs brings up a mega menu. This would be inaccessible to users with touchscreens, and those who are able to use it would most likely be frustrated when unnecessary tabs open while browsing.
1.4 - SHEIN COLLECTION REPETITIVE
At first I thought there is no need to have “SHEIN COLLECTION” three times, but two of them are dead links and the only link that works is the one that says “shop now”.
1.5 - TOPS CATEGORY IN CLOTHING
Most of the tabs are available in more than one place, such as the “tops” and “dresses” tabs can also be found under “clothing”. Not only that, all the “tops” categories are not even shown under the “clothing” tab. This can confuse the end-user.
1.6 - FIXED NOTIFICATION BANNER
This notification is intended for new users, but there is already one at the top of the page that says the same thing. It is unnecessary to have it here again and frustrating that it can not be removed. It is also hiding the search icon and does not move even when the user scrolls down the page.
3.2 Home Page
Home Page
Findings
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2.0 NOTIFICATIONS
Another substantial section is devoted to Shein messages/notifications. These are not primary navigations and do not require the same font size or prominence.
2.1 - LACK OF STORY TELLING
This provides no context for me, and I have no idea what this means. This appears to be irrelevant, especially for new users. Do I get a refund for a previous order? What does the image have to do with winning back my order? Even if I want to know more, clicking "view more" takes me to a page advertising a pool party collaboration. This is confusing because it offers no context.
2.2 - PERSONALISE
This is a slideshow for only two images, as shown, and they are not consistent in any way. Not only that, one slide is promoting a sale and the other is targeting a niche interest. Hence, this slideshow seems like a waste of space and not very user friendly as it does not benefit all users and is taking up a lot of screen space that could otherwise promote useful products instead.
2.3 - BREAKING THE FLOW
As stated previously, there is a lack of storytelling and cohesion as now it advertise its offers once again. So far, there has been no CTA or useful links and images to entice a user to buy from them and understand what products they offer. It is unclear who the target audience is as it seems heavily based on sending company notifications.
2.4 - INCONSISTENT FORMAT
Another change in font and colours, further implying there is no cohesion and distinct style guide. Also, the first row is showing categories that are not even what they promoted in their main navigation
2.5 - IMAGES AND TEXT NOT RELATED
Images show no context and does not give any information to users.
2.6 - PERSONALISATION
This page is clearly aimed at women, which will turn men away. It would be more effective if it catered to the interests of the users. It is understandable that this is not possible for new users; thus, splitting the section into two and advertising products "for women" and "for men" would be more inclusive and welcoming.
2.7 - IMPROPER LOCATION
With the current UX and content hierarchy on this page, I would prioritise this and move it higher up the page to get people started on their journeys sooner. It is more relevant to end-users and targets the products offered, and I believe it would gain traction if it was the first thing users saw when going to the homepage, as users must scroll quite a bit to see this section.
2.8 - UNPOPULAR TABS
These tabs are rarely used by users and are very specific. If this was intended to adapt to a returning user's usual searches, it might be more useful, but the tabs seem overly specific and unnecessary given that the site already offers a pricing filter for users interested in a certain price range.
There is no slider or carousel to display products under these tabs and hence only 6 items are shown. These are very specific items and it seems like a waste of space to have them shown here when a user can just search something they are interested in.
2.9 - PLACEMENT AND CONTENT
What is the purpose of a hashtag? Is the user expected to tag Shein on social media with this hashtag? Almost 30% of Shein users are over the age of 45, which means they are unlikely to be familiar with hashtags and thus this would be incomprehensible to those users. The content is already visible in the main navigation. The flow has been disrupted because the images now have rounded corners when they previously had sharp rectangular imagery. What caused this shift?
2.10 - SIMILAR TO RECOMMENDED BRANDS
Previously, there was a section on this page dedicated to recommended brands, which is similar to trending brands and thus repetitive and boring.
2.11 OVERWHELMING CONTENT
There are two slideshows here that move quickly. Many of the slides have previously been advertised and are now becoming repetitive. Each image has a unique colour scheme and imagery that can be overwhelming and exhausting to look at.
2.12 STYLE GALLERY LINK
This can be a useful link for users to get inspiration from others, but only a limited number of photos are shown, and if a user wants to see more, they must go to the categories below.
2.13 - STYLE GALLERY CATEGORIES
Another example of a style and format change on the website home page is shown. The categories are now rounded buttons with an earthy tone colour palette, which contrasts with the previous bright colours.
They are displayed as separate buttons and in a slider format, but if you click on the arrow, there is only one more category. This appears to be a waste of space and user effort for little to no gain.
2.14 WHAT DO THE ICONS MEAN?
Perhaps it was the placement of these icons below the unnecessary banner, or the grey colour, but I didn't notice them. Not only that, but I'm not sure what it's offering me.
When I clicked on the play icon, it took me to a video that couldn't be played because it was a private video, so it acted like a dead link. What is the point of this, and why was the video made?
The next phone icon took me to a pop-up that said it was available as an app. I couldn't predict this with the icons, so they appear useless for displaying the information, but the footer has already stated that it is an app, so I believe this is unnecessary here. The arrow is a good addition to show that when clicked, it will take you to the top of the page; it's just a shame I didn't notice it.
4.0 Reflection
After evaluating the UX issues in the previous section, I addressed each of them and made recommendations on how Shein could improve the user experience.
4.1 Navigation Page
4.2 Home Page
