HMV is the UK and Ireland’s leading specialist retailer of Music, DVD/Video, Computer Games and Related Products. They are an easily recognisable high street presence in most towns and cities throughout the UK, and they also have stores in the Republic of Ireland, Hong Kong & Singapore.
The HMV.com website went live in 1997 and like all online retail websites has undergone a number of revisions and changes, both large and small, since that time.
In my capacity as User Experience Architect at Code Computerlove I have worked on several projects for HMV.com over the last 12+ months, including:
- Complete redesign of primary navigation and structure of product content
- Add in-line Add-To-Basket confirmation
- Improve visibility of Account Management links within the site header
- Add Utility links to new page footer
- Introduce partner-product content to facilitate cross-sell and up-sell
- Define user journeys and Integrate main HMV.com site with loyalty/rewards-based Pure.HMV.com site.
These projects involved a large amount of research and definition and I produced a wide range of UX documentation to support my designs and recommendations in each case, including expert reviews, competitor analysis, process flows, user journeys, interaction design and interactive prototypes.
I have outlined below one such project:
Redesign of Primary Navigation
Brief
HMV were looking to add depth to their information architecture by adding genres and sub-categories to their existing product categorisation.
An internal business case had been prepared and HMV’s view was that allowing customers to filter through a potentially infinite set of sub-categories would allow experienced customers to easily locate desired content, whilst building on the company’s reputation as experts in their field.
This would represent a dramatic change in the way users navigate around the HMV.com site, and as such a large amount of research and testing was done in order to ensure that the the chosen solution was the best solution.
Implementation
Various designs for the top navigation and left-hand navigation were tried but HMV’s final requirements meant that the top navigation could not be changed, so I concentrated on finding ways to make the left-hand navigation expose the product structure in an uncluttered and understandable way.
Two different types of navigation from the homepage were prototyped: pop-out and concertina.
Initial testing showed that the pop-out navigation was not sufficiently usable: the main problem being the precise co-ordination required when moving the mouse across and then down in order to choose an item. Users instinctively moved diagonally, meaning that the pop-out menu disappeared.
Users favoured the concertina approach, citing it’s ease of use and it’s clarity of meaning as main advantages.
Once the user had begun navigating through the product categories, I devised a technique whereby navigation also served as a bread-crumb trail and continually updated to show the current category’s parent categories.
This technique received favourable comments from test users as it allowed them to focus on genres and categories they were interested in without being distracted by peer content that they were not interested in.
Attention was paid to ensure that links always existed to allow the user to easily find their way back up, and the design included strong visual queues to signpost this.
Other HMV Projects
