Interview with Nicola Harper, Online Design Manager

A passion for the outdoors and a savvy sense for business have made REI a Northwest success story since their inception. We talked with Nicola Harper, REI's Online Design Manager, about how usability testing has helped turn small changes into big results.

Saltmine: How would you define usability?
Nicola Harper: Usability is the study and philosophy of making things user-friendly and intuitive. At REI, we try to ensure the best possible customer experience by making our sites, stores, and catalogs easy to use. We strive to address a wide group of customers, with varying goals, and find what they need. Ultimately, usability is a tool that can help evaluate and make sense of the variables — large and small — that impact our customers' experience.

What do your customers expect from your Web site? How has this changed in the last few years?
Because there has been greater emphasis placed on Web site usability over the past few years customers expect more from their online experiences. They spend more time online and have a lower tolerance for poorly done sites. People won't tolerate a slow, hard to use, or inconsistent site, and they aren't afraid to abandon if they feel the site falls short of their expectations.

Our customers come to our site because they want to research and compare products and reviews — not just buy. It's important that we make whatever they are trying to do easy and enjoyable. Our customers expect a consistent and positive experience whether they are shopping in a retail store, online, or over the phone. The REI online group works closely with all other departments at REI to ensure we are creating a consistent experience with all other channels.

What prompted REI to consider usability with Saltmine? What was the impetus?
If customers have a positive experience on our site they are more likely to shop with us again and develop a positive association with our brand. By fixing usability issues, we are able to keep our customers happy and coming back. Usability testing is a great way to get folks from the online team focused on what's important to users. Unless you're in the call center or working in the stores, it's hard to know how the customer shops and what they need. By having the online team participate in and/or observe usability tests, people are able to create a better experience through a greater understanding of the customer.

REI did two usability studies with Saltmine. The first one evaluated our existing search engine; the second evaluated an upcoming online gift registry program. Metrics showed that the search engine was the most common method users relied on to find products. The search engine was converting users at a reasonable rate, but we realized we had an opportunity to make the it better. Because the traffic was so great, we knew that even a small improvement would have a dramatic influence on sales. Our goal for the test was to understand customers' impressions of the tool and discover how they wanted the results to be presented. In the study, we discovered user needs, behaviors, and usability issues with the live interface. The findings helped us make strategic decisions about how to improve the highly used tool and increase customer satisfaction and conversion.

The other project we worked on with Saltmine was testing prototypes for the online gift registry. We wanted objective feedback and direction from customers on our proposed solutions for a new registry. By testing our prototypes before launch, we were able to change requirements based on customer feedback and create a more usable feature. Performing the test during the development stage was imperative.

Why did you choose to do a formal usability study?
We do a lot of usability testing in-house but because the search engine usability study was a bit more complex, it was nice to take advantage of Saltmine's expertise. Their methodology and approach are well-aligned with ours so it was a good fit, plus we found it beneficial to have a non-REI person executing the study. I think we received more candid feedback than we would have if we were executing the study ourselves, in the REI offices. By working with Saltmine, we learned more about the usability process in general and were able to bring that knowledge back and apply it to our in-house tests.

What did you learn that you didn't expect from the online gift registry usability study?
Although customers found the gift registry prototypes fairly easy to use, we came away with dozens of findings to improve their overall experience. One of the interesting take-aways for us was that there was a distinct difference between men and women in how they interacted with the gift registry. We placed men and women together in front of the screen — as they would if they were selecting items to be placed on their bridal registry, and learned that men were much less likely to respond to product suggestions than women.

In fact, we've learned that no matter what you've set out to test, you're going to uncover findings on elements that you weren't intending to. You'll get input about things you weren't soliciting, and what you learn might surprise you.

How did you incorporate the results of the usability study into your site?
For the search engine study we went through the list of recommendations we received from Saltmine and prioritized each item based on what was easiest to implement, what would give us the most return and what we could handle with our own resources. We formed a Search taskforce, which is still a working unit today, and made interface changes, synonym relationships, updated category language, and defined numerous projects for down the road. A lot of what the search needed was constant tweaking to ensure customers were getting the results they intended. We now have a person dedicated to looking at what customers are typing in and making sure their results are optimized. We've seen great success from this approach.

For the gift registry study, we incorporated the results directly into the development cycle, changed use cases, business rules, interfaces and language. The evolution of the registry was customer-centric and user-driven from the start.

What do outdoor enthusiasts have to look forward to from REI.com in 2004?
I think one of the coolest things we will launch in 2004 is what customers have been asking for — an improved gift registry where they can register to buy three ways: in-store, online, and by phone. In addition to some snazzy new features, we will be focusing on the areas of the site that customers use and care about the most. We will keep honing the way customers find, research, compare and buy products.

What is the coolest thing about working for REI?
Not only do I enjoy working for an ethical company whose goals are aligned with my own but I genuinely like improving the online experience for our customers. It's fun to meet with our customers, find out what they want, and get it on the site quickly. I really enjoy working for a company that always thinks about what's best for the customer.