HOKAProject

Project Overview

Part of univerity coursework at Purdue University

Who is HOKA?

Hoka is a Deckers sub brand that produces premium performance footwear for athletes of all levels. The company has rapidly grown to become a leading name in the industry with a mission to empower a world of athletes to "fly over the earth".

Problem Statement

In this project, we aimed to research the current product comparison experience in order to understand: How do users determine the right product for them?

How might we provide feature enhancements to current footwear shoppers resulting in a robust, interactive experience to assist them in finding the right product?
How might we expand from the current comparison feature and develop new features that help in the decision-making process?

Role

Team Lead, User Research, Design Workshops, Sketching, Interviewing, User Testing, Wireframing

Team

7 UX designers

Timeline

August 2023 - December 2023

Screenshot from hoka.com

Shoe Finder Quiz

Users are guided through a set of questions including gender, types of activites (run, walk, hike), and other categories. Then they recieve three potential matches.

Screenshot from hoka.com

Comparison Tool

Users can see a side by side comparison of up to 4 different shoes, including categories like images, ratings, terrain, stability, and cushion.

Screenshot from hoka.com

Product Page

Users review products in a standard way by looking at a product page one at a time and looking into its product information.

More Visual Opportunities Mock Up

Improving Comparison Tool Mock Up

Improving Visuals Mock Up

Search Feature Mock Ups

Partnership Mock Up

The final desings are a combination of improving exisitng features as well as conceptualizing new features.

According to Reddit and a 2022 Mintel Research Report

Our team started this milestone by exploring and gathering insight from previous research online on athletic shoe purchases and product comparisons. Additionally, we aimed to narrow down our user group by researching the major demographic of the problem space, specifically who might purchase HOKA shoes.

What factors are prioritized when searching for new shoes?

Comfort, Price, and Style are top priorities for users when choosing a shoe.
Other relevant categories include: running type, brand, and longevity.

Opinions on Shoe Finder and Comparison Tools

Tools recommend random shoes rather the shoes that actually fit the users
More experienced runners benefit from just reading the info provided on the product page rather than the quizzes
Issues with virtually estimating Size and Fit

Users identified by the design team

“Runners”: cardio activities including walking and hiking but excluding athletic activities such as sports that have more specific shoe requirements.

MILESTONE 2: How do users currently compare products and identify the right product for them?

Codesign Workshop

6 Novice Runners aged 18-22 years old

Our goals with this workshop were to understand the consumer habits of novice runners, the factors that influence shoe purchases, and how users arrive at online athletic stores.

"Draw Your Perfect Shoe" Activity

This activity helped us understand what our participants prioritize in their ideal running shoe and may look for when shopping for shoes online

Ranking Activity

This activity helped us understand what factors are important to them when shopping for shoes AND the order of importance these factors take

Jounrey Map Activity

This activity helped us understand our participants' thought process in their end-to-end experience of purchasing shoes

Ranking Activity

Jounrey Map Activity

"Draw Your Perfect Shoe" Activity

Codesign Workshop

6 Experienced Runners aged 18 - 26 years old

Our goals with this workshop were to understand the consumer habits of experienced runners, the factors that influence shoe purchases for experienced runners, and when and how the comparison process happens for experienced runners.

Jounrey Map Activity

We walked through a scenario of buying new running shoes with the participants. We formulated questions and prompts for every stage and then guided participants to record their responses and document their journey

Comparison of Two Shoes Activity

We created PDFs of both shoe models and hid information like branding and shoe pictures to keep the decision-making to the information provided on the page. We asked participants to determine thier preferred shoe at the end of the activity. We were less interested in what model they picked and more interested in the factors they compared to make their decision.

Ranking Activity

We collected the overarching categories participants mentioned during the two activities and discussion, then presented the list in no particular order. We asked the participants to think about the top three most influencial factors and one factor they considered less

Comparison of Two Shoes Activity

Jounrey Map Acitvity

Ranking Activity

Similarities and differences in user behavior in athletic footwear shopping

After conducting and synthesizing materials from both Workshops, we compared their insights to each other to find the similarities and differences between Novice and Experienced Runner behavior in athletic shoe shopping Journey. These differences and similarities are displayed in a ven diagram below.

MILESTONE 3: How are users currently engaging with the HOKA platform?

Usability Testing

Compared to the previous two workshops, our third primary research activity focused specifically on HOKA’s current platform and understanding user behavior surrounding it. We sought to understand how users might navigate through the HOKA website, and use additional tools like the Shoe Finder quiz and comparison tools to help them decide on the right product.

Comparison Tool

Low discoverability: most of our participants (80%) overlooked the comparison tool during their first time browsing the product listing page.
Dialog is large: upon hitting the “Compare” button, a dialog will appear at the bottom of the page. However, most of our participants find that this bottom dialog is too large that they cannot conveniently view other products in the listing.
Lacks Terminology Explination
No option to modify shoe list

Comparison Tool results

Shoe Finder Quiz questions

Board Members

Wording ambiguity: for some questions, users find the wording ambiguous, and therefore, they feel confused about choosing a correct answer for themselves.
“How can the result be accurate if there’s a lot of ‘not sure’ answers?”
Most experienced runners find less use in this tool since they already know what they want.

The HOKA project was a research heavy project that helped meimprove my skills as a Team Lead and as a Project Manager. Throughout theproject I was able to incorporate agile methodologies such as sprints and seehow those affected the research and design efficiency. I also led meetings withsponsors, codesign workshops, and facilitated design activities. I am a long-timerunner, so working along with sponsors from HOKA made this project extra excitingevery step of the way.

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