Yodel - My Account launched 16th November 2021
75K account registrations since going live.
Brief
Yodel had a business requirement for customers to create online accounts they could manage all their delivery preferences in. This includes setting a safe place, neighbours to avoid/property notes etc.
Any preferences set would apply to all future Yodel parcels and be honoured by Yodel Drivers/Couriers and ultimately maintain a good customer experience.
Tasks
- Match designs to Feature Release requirements
- Make designs responsive across all screen sizes
- Liaise with developers and testers to bring designs to life
- Design all aspects of the user journey including:
- Onboarding
- Homescreen
- Setting delivery preferences
- Editing account details
- Edge cases
My Role
Main UX/UI Designer.
Timeframe
6-8 months in an agile framework.
Competitor Analysis | User Interviews
We were building an account feature for customers which is something that Yodel has never provided before. We needed to gather research on what customers expected to see and what they wanted to see.
Competitor Analysis
In order to see what customers expected to see, we carried out a competitor analysis.
Obvious competitor delivery services include Hermes, DPD and Royal Mail all of which were already proving customers with account features to manage their preferences in. It was beneficial for Yodel to look into what competitors were offering and to see what worked well from a customer perspective.
- Users are able to send and track a parcel, also able to set ‘places’ which is like setting their delivery preferences.
- ‘Send a parcel’ is the most prominent feature on the homepage- it would be interesting to see how often this feature is used as opposed to ‘order history’ and ‘My Places’.
- Users have a range of options they can choose from, the action they have placed the most importance on is ‘Track your items’ which is something to keep in mind.
- Setting delivery preferences is something that is not presented in the homescreen- it can be done once the user is in ‘settings’. It’s interesting to think why Royal Mail did not place emphasis on this.
- DPD customers can only take control of their parcels and preferences when they download the app. From what it seems, there is a login function on the DPD site but it’s reserved for clients only.
- Delivery website account homepages tell me that tracking your parcels should remain the most important function.
- Sites also tend to provide a free service (tracking, rearranging deliveries etc) followed by marketing their paid services (send a parcel, pay a fee)
- Sites provide a clear way for the user to navigate through their account and use language familiar to users.
User interviews
After seeing what other delivery companies homepages looked like for account holders, it showed me what users expected to see on this screen. I created some rough designs after UX discussions with designers and our Product Manager, and now I wanted to see what users would like to see, what they liked and disliked.
- Users value seeing info they find most valuable upfront- and that is anything to do with their parcels.
- Clear iconography and images are valued by users, text-heavy homepages are off-putting.
Whiteboarding sessions
Along with another UX Designer, we had virtual brainstorming sessions. This was our regular process/questions we’d ask ourselves:
“I like, I wish, I wonder..."
- What is the feature requirement right now?
- What is the easiest way for the user to carry out the desired action?
- What aspects of the screen are we struggling with?
- Do we have any technical constraints to workaround?
- Does this flow well with the previous screen?
- Can we make the design multi-functional and eliminate as many edge cases as possible?
User journeys | Wireframes
User journeys
Before designing screens I needed to map the user journeys that we expected ALL our users to go through.
Low fidelity wireframes
I created the designs using a mobile first approach, these are a few of my wireframes.
Before launching we carried out beta testing within the office and asked users what they thought of My Account so far. We gathered really useful feedback and picked up on things we missed along the way.
Beta feedback outcome
As a team, interview feedback that proved to be useful- we implemented immediately into the final screens.
For feedback that was not as imminent, we planned on monitoring My Account to see whether it would be helpful to tweak.
