Overview

JanSport is an American company that manufactures and retails backpacks, bags, and outdoor gear. They cater to a wide range of masses namely, students, professionals, outdoor enthusiasts, and travelers. Their website was re-design to improve the conversion rate, and the whole user experience of it, to achieve more online revenue. Competitive analysis and user research was conducted to produce high-fidelity wireframes as solutions.

Duration - 5 weeks

My Role - UX Researcher, Data and SEO Analyst, User Experience Design, Marketing Analyst, Prototyper, User Interface Designer

JanSport’s total revenue for the year 2022 is 1.8 B usd. However, the revenue from the online sales is only 10M usd. The reason for the in-store sales being more successful is that JanSport collaborates with other retailers like Tilly’s, Target, Walmart etc. For the online sales, their products are available at the same stores as well, along with amazon and their own website. While investigating further, I realized that the conversion rate for JanSport’s website is from 2.0% to 2.5%. The reason for comparatively lesser revenue online is the website’s user experience and usability issues.

Competitor analysis

The competitors of JanSport are The North Face (https://www.thenorthface.com/en-us/equipment) and Herschel Supply Co.(https://herschel.com). The course was focused on E-commerce and its strategies, thus the target audience and marketing were the focus while choosing the competitors. JanSport’s expertise is in selling backpacks, bags, accessories, and apparel, while The North Face focuses a lot on outdoor gear, outdoor apparel, and backpacks for outdoor activities. Herschel Supply Co., on the other hand, offers a lot many things to its users, suitcases, carry-on luggage, duffel bags, backpacks, apparel, etc. Despite varied offerings, all three brands share a segment of their target audience interested in quality backpacks.

Overall, JanSport’s website lacks in efficient of design in comparison. The process of conducting this analysis unearthed useful and interesting insights, and gave me an opportunity to notice details.

User Research

Target audience

JanSport's current primary audience, according to user research, is women aged 25-34. Those interested in active lifestyle, apparel, journalism, computer electronics, technology, art, and design are more likely to encounter JanSport and make a purchase from them. A huge chunk of it purchasing backpacks for their kids. A significant 83.68% of this audience is located in the United States.

Overall, gender distribution was - Male being 37.53%, and Female being at 62.47%

JanSport's VP, Monica Rigali, mentioned a marketing focus on 14-22-year-olds, with a target zone around 16-18-year-olds. The company is currently emphasizing social media marketing and collaboration with influencers and streamers to expand beyond this range. For now, they are not targeting outside of that range. JanSport wants to capture, reflect, and become a platform for that time of a person’s life. It’s a transformative time for every human.

There is a gap in what JanSport’s target audience and what their current major audience. For this project, I am focusing on the current major audience demographic.

Persona and Empathy map

The persona, empathy map, and journey map is based on a married woman in her thirties. She has two kids, one boy and one girl. She is looking to buy a new backpack for her kids. She is based on the current user audience discovered in user research. Following analysis about the persona catches a glimpse of the audience and helps set benchmarks in not only usability and accessibility, but also in user’s interest, emotional investment, and motivations.

Goals for the persona is to stay organized in her daily lives, to express her personal style, and to have something that is durable, and convenient. She likes organized sections in her bags. She doesn’t like to buy things again and again. She prefers safe choices but also loves to buy trendy things with color options.

The persona was excited after understanding the features of the product and relaxed after she decided to get it. She was irritated during the checkout process on the website. This provides an opportunities to make the checkout process more user-friendly. As well as better showcasing of the information and products through categorizing them, making it simpler for the users.

Original website - JanSport

Ideation process

All of my design processes always starts with paper and pen. Scribbling lets me forget the the pressure of making it aesthetic, and lets me focus on functionality of it all.

Low fidelity wireframe