UX Study — Research report
Checkout Usability Study
A moderated study of a 4-step checkout — where users hesitated, why, and the interface changes that followed.
- Method
- Moderated, task-based · 8 participants
- Format
- Remote, think-aloud · 45 min each
- Deliverable
- Findings, severity ratings, recommendations
- Year
- 2024
Objective
Understand where users lose confidence during checkout and quantify the friction so the team can prioritize fixes against effort.
Method
- Eight participants matched to two core buyer personas.
- Three realistic purchase tasks, think-aloud protocol.
- Success, time-on-task, and error counts logged per step.
- Findings rated on a 4-point severity scale.
Key findings
1 · Address form (critical)
6 of 8 participants hesitated at the address step; auto-format fought their input and error messages appeared only after submit.
2 · Hidden shipping cost (serious)
Cost appeared late, causing visible surprise and two abandonments in-session.
3 · Ambiguous progress (moderate)
Participants were unsure how many steps remained, lowering confidence to continue.
Recommendations
- Inline, real-time validation with forgiving formatting.
- Show all-in cost before the payment step.
- Persistent step indicator with clear remaining count.
These findings fed directly into the checkout redesign that followed, where the interface work lives.