The Postal Store gives USPS® customers the convenience of ordering online

Customers can order stamps, shipping supplies, and unique items only available from the United States Postal Service®

Enables customers to Shop by Category on the page.

Customers can either use their account or use Guest Checkout.

Customers can subscribe for Stamps.

Free shipping supplies for customers.

• Obtain usability data and feedback on the current Postal Store
• Test the Guest Checkout experience to find customer pain points
• Test finding specific items, adding items to the Cart, and going through checkout as a Guest
• Employ user research methods to achieve a deep understanding of what USPS customer need, want, and prefer
• Develop and prioritize design recommendations to optimize improvement and maximize user satisfaction
• Recommend design solutions and changes for developer handoff

• Recruit a diverse sample of USPS® customers with a best available mix of age, geographic location, business size and business industry
• Prepare testing materials for research, testing and other deliverables
• Conduct/Moderate/Observe user interviews to gather both quantitative and qualitative data
• Gather feedback from USPS customers on the changes needed to the application
• Identify opportunities for improving the Postal Store on USPS.com
• Analyze data in order to aid in the prioritization of Store and Guest Checkout issues
• Make any necessary recommendations and updates to the application through prototypes
• Present finidings and recommendation report and deliver prototypes
• Communicate design decisions with developers for feasibility and workarounds

Discovery

• Familiarization with the Postal Store site and project timelines
• Heuristic evaluation of Postal Store screens and user journey
• Stakeholder interviews - USPS Product & Business Owners

User Surveys

• Web-based surveys targeted to USPS customers
• Recruiting test participants with a good mix according to requirements

User Interviews

• Moderated, structured interviews with USPS® customers
• Conducted via telephone & web conference
• Moderators followed standardized interview guide tailored for each user group
• Session Structure:
  1. Confirm customer's background
  2. Discussion of customers’ use of the online Store, and expectations for shopping
  3. Exploration and discussion of the Guest Checkout process
  4. Obtain user insights on Stamp Subscriptions
• Conducted on both Mobile and Desktop

During the Discovery phase, major user groups were identified as Consumers and Business users

A focus on those without a USPS.com® account

28 usability test sessions were conducted remotely with Consumers and Business users across the US

Finding the Store - Navigation

Customers gave an average rating of 5.7 (out of a possible 7)

Nothing on the USPS.com® homepage specifically mentions “Store”

Store Landing Page

Customers liked the content and general appearance

Search Issues

Searching for cards in the Store returned non-card items

Search Recommendations

Add a category dropdown as shown below which has All, stamps, supplies, gifts, etc. as options

Search field suggests “in Stamps”, or “in Supplies”, etc. below each autosuggest option

Landing Page Recommendations

Consider reducing the number of icons to raise the fold and avoid the blank space

Saved could be moved to the Account pop-up, and Search could have a different design

The two blank spaces at the end of each page of items seemed like wasted space

Customers wondered why these spaces were blank

Customers missed pagination below the fold as they assumed that the items ended

Recommendation

Consider dynamically filling the last 2 spaces depending on the number of items on the list.

Note that this will also affect the Per Page dropdown number.

Pagination was generally not an issue, but could be improved

Having pagination at both the top and the bottom would be beneficial

Per Page control is rather far from the pagination and could be overlooked

Recommendation

Consider including the pagination and Results Per Page controls at both top and bottom of the page

Customers found it difficult to know the size of boxes from the current images.

Recommendation

Consider diagrammatic and / or object images for determining box size

Available box formats was confusing to customers

“Boxes 1-5” option was confusing - pack of 5, or the boxes were part of a set

Not all read the highlighted text which mentions “single (1-5),”

Recommendation

Consider changing the wording to "Single Box"

Highlight the quantity input box in red with the error right below it - inline error.

Using “$0.00” to indicate “free” is not sufficiently clear

Some customers did not take “$0.00” to mean “free"

They felt that price would update once the item was added to their cart along with shipping

Recommendation

Consider whether showing “Free” wording for free supplies would be beneficial

On Mobile, the Chat Now option got in people’s way

The Chat Now option was very large on Mobile screens

It reduced the visible screen space and obscured fields lower in the form

Recommendation

Reduce the size of the Chat Now prompt on Mobile

Show the chat option with text for a couple of seconds and minimizing it to just an icon

Editing the cart led to confusion

When a customer updates the quantity, there is no visual indicator of a successful update

Customers struggled to find Stamp Subscriptions

Customers tended to look first on the USPS.com® homepage, then in Stamps, and then in Business Supplies

Part of filter options: Those that looked in Stamps missed the filter for Stamp Subscriptions

Average rating of 2.7 (out of a possible 7) in terms of how easy it was to locate Stamp Subscriptions

Recommendation

Stamp subscriptions should be mentioned or linked to in other parts of the site, such as the "Shop" megamenu

Stamp subscriptions could be shown as an additional list item or advertisement

Presentation of the stamp subscription costs was confusing or misleading

Odd that the prices shown are all the same

The total does not update based on the option selected

Average rating of 3.4 (out of a possible 7) in terms of how easy it was to understand the formats and costs

Recommendation

Potential changes to the cost display according to subscriptions