Status alerts for online orders
At CVS Health, I supported the Rx Transactions team, focusing on order status messaging and the checkout process. I wrote labels, order status messages, error messages, order details content, confirmation pages, emails, and much more.
The following case study explains a set of status alert messages for online orders.
Problem: Minimal order status info
CVS Retail (CVS.com) customer support was getting calls about order statuses, because there was minimal information available on the online pharmacy. We needed a way to show status messages in various ways so that the customer could get the information they wanted online.
Problem #1: Customer support was receiving issues that could be mitigated online.
Problem #2: The UX team wasn’t sure where to place order status messages in the UI.
Approach: Research and iteration
This was a large UX team effort, involving Design, Content, and Research. Along with these partners, I conducted internal and external research to determine an effective way to notify customers when an order had been put on hold.
Research included cross-train collaboration to find what other CVS pharmacies had implemented, as well as external research using usertesting.com.
I helped design the test questions for the user test. We tested the placement of new status alerts that we had discovered from other pharmacies, as well as the content of the statuses.
I also helped analyze the test results and integrate the learnings back into the design.
We received positive feedback, but also saw opportunities for iteration. With the feedback, I worked with internal stakeholders, mostly Product, to revise the status messages.
Methods: User testing
Along with Design and Research, I helped develop the questions for preference testing. Using usertesting.com, we had participants run through two scenarios - one with less “On hold” status messaging on the Order History page, and one with more status messaging on the Order Details page.
The test contained scenarios, design options, and follow-up questions.
We limited the test to one day and had 12 participants.
The analysis showed that users preferred more detailed messaging on the Order Details page.
Outcome
1 Order status alert
Designed to capture the user’s attention and give high-level direction.
2 Order status and substatus
Designed to give basic information as part of the order tracker.
3 Line item status
Designed to give detailed information so that the user knows the exact status or can take specific action, if needed.
