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optimized image quality

Image Quality Hero
User Story

As a shopper, I want my pages to load quickly and the product images to be detailed and crisp.

As the brand, we want to decrease our yearly bandwidth costs.

research optimization strategy

image quality & purchase intent

Image Quality Journey

goal

To understand how consumers perceive image quality with the intentions of delivering higher quality images (better color representation, less pixilation) while maintaining a cost sensitive image file size.

Hypothesis

Increasing an image by 1.5x times its in-browser requirement and decreasing its JPG quality to 40% will render an image that is of indistinguishable quality when compared to a 1x, 100% JPG quality image.

benefit
This resulted in an approximate 30% decrease in image size and an improved page-load speed!

Team Structure

My Roles Supporting Roles
Lead UX Designer e-Commerce Director: Corinne Suchy
Researcher Executive Creative Director: Joanna Ewing
Analyst Lead Photographer: Devyn Galindo
Strategist Lead Engineer: Tom Knabe

study requirements

Brand & Studio Approved Images

These images were chosen specifically for their range of content and color density and contextual variances.



Image Presets

Base 1.5x 2x
Image size 2x3 ratio 1.5x base 2x base
JPG Quality 87% 40% 25%

Test Participants

Invitations were sent out at Urban Outfitters headquarters to cull image experts and laypeople alike.


Devyn Galindo
Mika Osborn
Taylor Saya
Matt Owen
Joanna Ewing

benefit
37 image and creative professional participants attended the study

Category Page & Image Zoom Views

We put together sumulated views of a category page and image zoom for participants to select which image they felt was the best quality.

The views included pagination between selections as well as a "Thank you for completion" screen which displayed live results of the study.

results

Feel free to download the analysis of our collected data if you're interested in the details. Study Results PDF.

In short > the results came out inconclusive. Participants could not discern a visual disparity between the 3 image presets. We concluded this as a success. After a close inspection of the images and the results, we were able to move forward with delivering a 1.5x, 40% JPG quality image preset.


outcome
Participants could not discern a visual disparity between the 3 images presents

Delivery Strategy

As a customer progresses deeper into their journey, provide larger and higher quality images. Higher quality images at appropriate touchpoints empower shoppers during the carting and purchasing decision making process.