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The Problem
NBA Store App
Imagine you’re a dedicated NBA fan, excitedly watching your favorite team play. Mid-game, you decide you need the latest jersey to show your support. You grab your phone, open the NBA app, but find yourself overwhelmed by a complex web of links and tabs. It’s hard to know where to begin or how to quickly find what you need.
This experience was the catalyst for my self-led project to improve the NBA Store app. My goal was to simplify navigation, reduce visual clutter, and make shopping for NBA merchandise as seamless and enjoyable as watching the game itself.
Fanatics: The Powerhouse Behind NBA Merchandise
Fanatics is the NBA's official e-commerce partner, managing exclusive rights to NBA jerseys, apparel, and collectibles.
With over 12 sports leagues on its platform, the NBA Store alone attracts 3.5 million visitors monthly, over one-third of Fanatics' 10 million monthly visitors.
The significant share of NBA-related traffic highlights the strong interest and demand for NBA merchandise. This suggests a focused strategy on NBA-specific user experience improvements could yield substantial benefits.
Goals
Simplify Navigation: Reduce options to enhance user focus.
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Enhance Clarity: Make pathways to finding merchandise intuitive and straightforward.
Improve User Experience: Ensure the app remains engaging and responsive, even when inactive.
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Research Overview
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To gather more insights, I conducted usability tests with the NBA Store app and website. I asked five friends to go through the app and add a jersey from their favorite team to their cart, then go back to add socks from their least favorite team. Observing their experiences provided valuable data for my brainstorming sessions.
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I also used Similarweb, a tool that analyzes traffic and user behavior on websites and apps, to gather insights on user behavior for the NBA Store website. Similarweb's data helped identify high bounce rates and navigation difficulties, which guided my redesign approach.
user behavior
Analyzing User Behavior
Bounce Rates:
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High bounce rates, above 50%, on the NBA Store site suggested users struggled to navigate effectively. Improving site navigation and making the user journey more intuitive are critical to reducing bounce rates. Simplified and more direct pathways to products are essential.
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Keywords and User Intent:
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Users typically search for merchandise related to a specific sport. For example, someone looking for an NBA jersey is unlikely to be interested in NASCAR gear simultaneously. It was reasonable to assume that users of the NBA Store app are primarily there for NBA merchandise and prefer a streamlined experience. This highlighted the need for sport-specific platforms. For the NBA Store app, ensuring that the focus remains exclusively on NBA merchandise will likely improve user satisfaction and engagement.
challenges
Navigation Challenges
Current navigation requires users to take multiple steps to switch from one team's merchandise to another, involving going back to the homepage or drilling down through menus. Streamlining navigation by providing direct links to other teams from any team’s page can significantly enhance user experience, reducing frustration and bounce rates.
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There are many overlapping categories, such as Lawn & Outdoors, Car Accessories, and Home & Office, all featuring similar products like the game day essentials kit. Consolidating overlapping categories into a unified section (e.g., Tailgating) will streamline the user experience, making it easier for users to find what they’re looking for and reducing visual clutter.
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The app’s timeout feature also poses a problem, losing user progress if not interacted with for a few minutes.​
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brainstorm
Brainstorming
To tackle the challenge, I employed several psychological approaches and design strategies, to begin my brainstorming process:
Hick's Law:
Hick's Law states that the time it takes to make a decision increases with the number of choices. I hypothesized that simplifying the navigation would decrease the bounce rate and improve the overall user experience.
Visual Hierarchy:
Visual hierarchy organizes content in a way that naturally guides the user's eye. This principle was critical in ensuring that users could easily find and navigate through the app, leading to a more intuitive experience.
Jakob’s Law:
Users spend most of their time on other sites and apps, so they prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know. Right now Fanatics and NBA both have multiple products with a lot of varying UI and navigation styles. Leveraging familiar design patterns will help users feel more comfortable and reduce the learning curve.
design and implementation
Design and Implementation
With these goals in mind, I set out to redesign the NBA Store section. Here’s how I tackled the challenges:
Users have a direct link to team pages from the home screen as well as other high priority categories.
Users see most important sections like product categories and sale displayed prominently.
Users are given limited options, sorted by most common paths.
Visual Hierarchy
Team Store Links: Added direct links to team-specific stores and high engagement links on each screen to cut down on navigation steps.
Intuitive Pathways
Design Enhancements: Employed contrasting colors and larger fonts for better section visibility.
Content Organization: Prioritized product categories and team merchandise for easier discovery.
Simplify: Pare down clutter including filtering options and unnecessary links
Streamlined Navigation
Menu Optimization: Streamlined menu structure to reduce complexity.
NBA Store Access: Added a clear, dedicated tab for the NBA Teams to optimize navigation.
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