Flexible UPC Search
Enabled customer migrations by unblocking vital use cases
In a product database, users couldn’t find products by UPC
“The ability to search for partial UPC’s is a big need for our company. Exact searching is very limiting and would make my, and others at my company's, job much much harder”
- Retailer Taxonomy Data Analyst
NielsenIQ Product Explorer (NPE) enables retailer and consumer packaged goods (CPG) users to analyze the market, discover new products, and investigate product data.
When users searched for products by UPC, NPE would return 0 products unless the user entered the exact 14-digit code.
In reality, users rarely had the full code, causing frustration, workflow barriers and users refusing to migrate to the new product version.
Results
The solution empowered users to choose how they wanted their search applied and made bulk searching easier, more efficient, and less error-prone.
Our solution enabled 3 key customers to migrate to the new version of our product, meeting commercial and technical goals for the quarter.
The team
1 Principal UX Designer - Design Lead (me)
1 Product Owner
3 Back-End Engineers
1 Front-End Engineer
1 Designer (Research support)
VP of Product (Stakeholder)
Assuming got us stuck, collaboration got us unstuck
Initially, the team assumed the problem could be solved with back-end changes to make the search logic less specific.
Several sprints later, we were left with degraded performance, and the problem hadn’t been solved yet.
Taking initiative, I facilitated blameless, open dialog between our product owner and lead engineer. At the end of the discussion, we agreed that we hadn’t solved the issue, because we didn’t understand our users.
To ensure alignment and team buy-in, I led a collaborative session where our team brainstormed user research questions, and identified unknowns and technical risks.
Research planning
Method:
User Interviews (Contextual Inquiry) with internal and external users
Research Timeline:
Week 1: Scheduling interviews, develop research plan, begin interviews
Week 2: Complete interviews, research synthesis
Week 3: Team research share out (mid-week)
Tools:
Microsoft Word, Teams, Figjam
Research Questions:
How many digits do users have when searching by UPC?
Where are users getting UPC’s from?
How many UPCs do users search for at once?
What do users expect when they get their search results?
Key research insights
User Choice & Clarity
Users want a list of possible matches for shorter UPCs. When they have the full code, they expect exact results.
Users were looking for clear search requirements but couldn’t find any
Bulk Searching
Sometimes users need to search for 100’s-1000’s of UPCs at once.
It’s cumbersome and clunky to view and manage a long list of bulk UPC’s after searching.
Understanding Next Steps
Sometimes, 0 results happen.
When this happens, users expect guidance on the next steps and to understand how their search is being applied.
Insights & sketches
Be clear and give choice
Users want to choose if they want to do an exact or partial UPC search. They expect to see products in their results no matter what.
Search requirements were vague, and in some cases, non-existent. Users expect requirements to be communicated in order to find what they’re looking for.
A better view
Entering and editing multiple UPC’s is cumbersome and lacks clarity.
Users want to easily view and edit the UPC’s they’ve entered.
Guidance & Next Steps
Users want guidance on next steps and to understand how their search is being applied.
How did we use research insights to make data-driven decisions?
Translating user insights into user stories, I led a prioritization session where the team evaluated pros, cons, and technical impacts of each feature.
We aligned on scope that enabled users to understand and choose how their search is applied, easily see the list of UPC’s they’ve entered, and understand the next steps when there are no results.
High fidelity prototype
After multiple design iterations and working closely with engineering and product, we settled on a simple yet effective solution.
User Story:
As an NPE user, I can:
Paste in a long list of UPC’s from the main screen or through a bulk search feature
Decide if I want to apply my search as an exact or partial search
Clearly understand search requirements
Wins & opportunities
Wins
The solution enabled 3 key customers to begin the migration process
I took initiative when things weren’t going as expected, enabled the team to deliver on business outcomes, and boosted the team's morale.
I facilitated open dialog and created opportunities for inclusive collaboration
The UX solution was simple yet addressed a complex technical and user problem
Future opportunities
The new content design should be tested with users and iterated further on to ensure it helps users complete their task.
Provide more visibility to search settings on the main screen