Healthspan is a UK's largest mail-order supplier of vitamins, minerals and health supplements. They needed advice on how to make their site more engaging to help drive more purchases.
Role
UX Consultant.
After conducting an extensive review of the site and supporting research, I compiled a summary of the good features, quick win improvements, longer term improvements and conversion ideas.
To better understand specific triggers for someone to visit Healthspan and purchase supplements, I used a research agency to gather test participants that were interested or proactive in managing and maintaining their health.
The range of triggers shaping people's actions
53%
Want to make specific improvements.
24%
Experience diet deficiencies.
13%
Want to improve mental wellbeing.
10%
See supplements recommended on TV/Media/News.
Journey to product selection
I then analysed a combination of web traffic and email clickthroughs, to identify the top entry points (landing pages) to Healthspan and user sentiment around navigating the site.
For customers, navigation was one of the biggest sticking points in getting their vitamins, supplements or even just advice. So I set about to thoroughly review the navigation and make recommendations.
Health Conscious Realists
Buying vitamins and supplements spans a very wide audience, however, there are clear levels of engagement in this market. To start with, I defined a specific set of customers as 'Health Conscious Realists' and of that, there are two types:
Minimisers - Just want a quick solution and have other things to worry about.
Maintainers - Proactive and interested in bettering their health.
Meet Fred & Ella
Fred & Ella represent both 'Minimisers' and 'Maintainers' respectively and I put together personas to help paint a realistic picture of Healthspan's audience.
Where would Fred click?
Where would Ella click?
Navigation recommendations
To provide clear insights, I mapped out the site navigation and highlighted key focus areas where changes could enhance the customer experience and boost sales.
Page design reviews
For the page design reviews, I created deliberately basic layouts to emphasise functionality over small aesthetic details. This approach ensured that the focus remained on improving user experience and navigation rather than getting sidetracked by visual elements.
To aid in this process, I used a set of review annotations to categorise feedback:
Home page
Home page continued
Product category page
Product category page continued
As you can imagine, there are various types of customers who purchase vitamins and supplements. To better focus on opportunities to increase engagement and belief, I created a set of four distinct personas and plotted them on an alignment chart.
Focusing on True Believers
The research indicated that we need to nudge Healthspan customers towards “True Believer” behaviour. True Believers are the most loyal customers and are the most likely to recommend Healthspan products to friends or family, surpassing any conversion metric achieved through traditional sales methods.
How this could work in practice
To implement the ‘True Believer’ recommendations, I reviewed existing pages and annotated specific focus areas that would resonate with customers. Here is a product page example:
