[personal UX/UI review] Coupang's UX issue and my recommendation

Coupang's UX Issue Report

- Found through user interview and heuristics

Below is my findings from using Coupang's web (i.e. PC) and mobile (i.e. iOS) app service and having user interviews.  Majority of e-commerce services in Korea has somewhat similar issues.  My hope is that many of them deal with significantly important service challenges hindering user experience to reduce unnecessary hassles among buying users to serve them with quality solution and at the same time gain fruitful business outcome. 

1. product searchability
1. not available product
1. issue
1. [data] not available products at "Zero Moment of Truth"
2. evidence
1. [user interview] 3 out of 3 users says they were not able to find products that they needed at the moment that they needed
3. recommendation
1. [operation] list up all possible products in Korea if not the world via seller mobilization

2. too long product description
1. issue
1. [UI] page content requiring too much scrolling (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "Aesthetic and minimalist design" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [system] succinct product info through "1 item 1 description" operation on product detail page

3. text in image
1. issue
1. [data] displaying text in image format (e.g. link)
2. [data] description not searcheable
2. evidence
1. "Flexibility and efficiency of use" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [data] separate product image from text through redesigning product detail page and educating and supporting stakeholders (e.g. sellers) (e.g. Amazon: link)

4. not standardized product info
1. issue
1. [data] not canonicalized product information, not allowing users to compare (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "User control and freedom" and "Consistency and standards" principles from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [data] standardize product information per product category
2. [UI] allow users to filter products (e.g. link)

5. fake product listing
1. issue
1. [data] decreasing users’ trust on products at the site
2. evidence
1. “Error prevention” principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. either (1) [MD] removing not authentic or misleading products on display or (2) [UI] clearly telling users whether the products are authentic or not

2. purchase flow
1. many steps to go through for a purchase
1. issue
1. [system] operation model requiring users to select once more after they choose a product (i.e. link1-> link2), hurting user experience due to not leading to purchase right away but asking for more reading and selection
2. evidence
1. [user interview] too many steps
3. recommendation
1. [operation] change the current product listing system from many selectable items to only one item on product page to remove users' additional selection step on product detail page (i.e. link)
2. [user flow] select a product on first or search page-> select purchase button on product detail page-> Coupang ships the product

2. plethora of coupons to select to get discount
1. issue
1. [system] blocking convenient and pleasant shopping experience due to too many things to pay attention to to get discounts (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "Aesthetic and minimalist design" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [system] either (1) change the current coupon system (i.e. an added process for users to go through before purchase to get discounts) to a pricing system where discounted prices are already implemented in product detail page or (2) remove the coupon system to provide streamlined purchasing experience

3. using too many colors and items
1. issue
1. [UI] distracting users from fluid flow of purchase (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "Aesthetic and minimalist design" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [UI] minimize color variety perhaps less than 3 (c.f. Amazon: link1, link2)

4. no LBS (location-based service)
1. issue
1. [system] no nearby info option on mobile device (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "User control and freedom" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [system] providing "nearby" options whenever appropriate for users and products' context

3. ads
1. celebrity ad
1. issue
1. [user flow] obstructing users' primary activity (i.e. browsing and purchasing) flow on website; putting celebrity images to leverage brand recognition may bring a short win but the strategy may hurt the company in the long run by potentially distracting users from their focus of purchase to an interesting person to have a look at (e.g. link1, link2)
2. evidence
1. "Aesthetic and minimalist design" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [branding] to build brand equity in a sustainable and long run, remove celeb ad and focus on creating quality service which will be a good strategy for both short and long term

2. too many ads
1. issue
1. [system] distracting users from browsing and purchasing (e.g. link)
2. evidence
1. "Aesthetic and minimalist design" principle from "10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design" by Jakob Nielsen (i.e. link)
3. recommendation
1. [system] remove ads; if ads are needed for business purposes, think of other ways to show them but not obstruct users' browsing and purchasing flow

[personal UX/UI review] Amazon's rating algorithm

<source: link>
case: Amazon's rating system

positive: effort to provide useful customer review information to users by including multiple factors into rating algorithm.

The explanation states "Amazon calculates a product’s star ratings using a machine learned model instead of a raw data average. The machine learned model takes into account factors including: the age of a review, helpfulness votes by customers and whether the reviews are from verified purchases." 

[personal UX/UI review] after watching Apple Special Event on September 9, 2015

<source: http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2015/>

When watching Apple Special Event today, below are some thoughts in my head.

I liked Tim Cook's explanation on what components needed to be prepared for Apple TV to come to life.
1. powerful hardware- e.g. new Apple TV set-top box
2. modern OS- i.e. tvOS
3. new user experience- i.e. Siri Remote
4. developer tools- i.e. tvOS SDK
5. app store- built-in App Store

Due to contextual design, I also liked below features of Apple TV.
1. Cinematic screen saver displays relevant aerial videos of scenic cities and landmarks depending on user's time of day.
2. [show that modern family episode with Edward Norton] displays relevant contents of user's query (this feature has been introduced by Android TV already, though)
3. [skip ahead seven minutes] skips 7 minutes of video playing on screen.
4. [what did she say?] rewinds 15 seconds and temporarily turns on captions.
5. smooth transition from an item selection to detail page by displaying blurry contextual color on screen's background (c.f. Google's Image Search provides a different approach like below with similar idea to bring smooth transition in users' eyes)

[lecture: for startup] 스타트업을 위한 “개인정보” & “위치정보”

Subject	스타트업을 위한 “개인정보” & “위치정보” (link)
Place	Campus Seoul
Time	September 7, 2015  19:00~21:00
Speaker	김현호 변호사(Kim & Chang)
Host?	Campus Seoul
Focus	how to treat personal/location information in Korea (presentation file: link)

1. Lesson
1. 관련 법: 정보통신망법, 개인정보보호법, 신용정보법 (금융거래 관련)

2. 강의 목적: 규제 패턴에 대한 이해

3. 개인/위치 정보
1. 개인정보: 고유 정보 (성명, 주민번호), 신체적 정보 (유전자, 홍채), 활동하면서 발생하는 정보 인적, 신체, 재산, 정신적, 사회적 정보 (e.g. 웹사이트 검색내역, 물품 구매내역, 통장, 출결, 근무경력), 다른 정보와 쉽게 결합 (e.g. USIM/IMEI(International Mobile Equipment Identity) + 통신사 보유 정보)
2. 위치정보: 존재하거나 존재하였던 장소에 관한 정보
3. 개인위치정보: 다른 정보와 용이하게 결합하여 특정 개인의 위치를 알 수 있는 것 포함

4. 어떤 법이 적용되나요?
1. 개인정보보호법: 오프라인에서 수집/이용되는 모든 개인정보
2. 정통망법- 온라인 서비스 이용자 개인정보

5. 단계별 유의할 사항: 수집 및 이용: 수집-> 이용-> 제3자제공-> 처리 위탁-> 보관 및 파기

6. 고지와 동의 <- 위반시 형사 처벌
1. 고지할 사항

• 수집되는 개인정보
• 수집 및 이용 목적
• 개인정보 보유 및 이용 기간
• 동의ㅣ 거부한 경우 불이익(해당되는 경우)

2. 동의

• 약관과 별도 동의
• 필수 동의 vs. 선택 동의

3. 주민등록번호 처리 제한

7. 제3자 제공 <- 위반시 형사 처벌
1. 제3자의 범위 고지할 사항

• 개인정보를 제공받는 자
• 제공되는 개인정보 항목 (e.g. 성명, 주번, 주소, 기혼/미혼, 취미, ..등으로 표기 하면 안됨)
• 개인정보를 제공받는 자의 개인정보 이용 목적
• 개인정보를 제공받는 자의 개인정보 보유 및 이용 기간
• 동의를 거부한 경우 불이익(해당경우)

2. 동의
1. 수집 및 이용 동의와 별도 동의

8. 처리 위탁 <- 위반시 형사 처벌 및 행정처분
1. c.f. 위탁 (온라인 쇼핑몰에서 택배사에게) vs. 제3자 제공 (e.g. 이통사에서 보험사에게)
2. 고지 및 동의

• 수탁자 이름
• 위탁하는 업무의 내용

3. 공개

• 정보통신서비스 제공에 관한 계약을 이행하고 이용자 편의 증진 등을 위하여 필요한 경우
• 고지사항을 개인정보취급방침에 의거 공개

9. 파기 <- 위반시 형사 처벌
1. 필요하지 않은 경우 지체 없이 파기: 3년-> 1년 (현행)

10. 개인정보 국외 나가는 경우: e.g. 국외 서버 저장-> 고지 및 동의 받을 것

11. 기술적 및 관리적 보호조치
1. 백신SW설치, 물리적 접근방지, 침입탐지 시스템, 저장정보 암호화, 내부관리 계획, 접근권한, 비밀번호 관리, 전근통제시스템설치, 전송정보 암호화, 접속기록 보관, 협력 및 용역 업체 관리

12. 이용내역 통지 의무
1. 원칙- 이용내역을 연 1회 이상 주기적으로 이용자에게 통지
2. 예외- 이용내역 통지의무 면제 (e.g. 연락처 등 이용자에게 통지할 수 있는 개인정보 수집 않은 경우)

13. 영리목적 광고성 정보(spam) 전송 제한 (2014.11.29 시행)
1. 종전Opt-out  -> 현재 Opt-in

14. 위치정보사업과 위치기반서비스사업
1. 위치정보주체 (e.g. 내 자동차)-> 기지국->위치정보사업자 (e.g. 이통사)-> server -> 위치기반서비스업자-> 이용자(제3자) (e.g. app/PC; e.g. 다음지도)

15. 인허가
1. ask whether your service belongs to 위치정보사업 or 위치기반서비스사업 due to different requirements

2. Personal Takeaway
1. startup으로 현재 규제& 보완조치 고민할 것
2. 개인위치정보보호법 핵심- 개인위치정보 수집, 이용, 제공 시 동의 받을 것
3. 미국-> 한국 서비스도입시 주의할 것: 개인정보 동의절차
4. 위치정보 보호 위한 준수 사항 따를 것
5. 형사기관에서 요청시? 영장 받을 것
6. 정부에서 제공하는 개인정보보호법 관련 자료 (link)