Role

UX Researcher
Web Strategy Analyst

Date

Nov '2024

Service

UI / UX Design

03

Website Evaluation and Recommendation

HMart Website

Our team conducted an in-depth evaluation of the H Mart Canada website to identify areas for improvement in usability, design, and content clarity. The goal was to enhance the overall customer experience by benchmarking against competitors and suggesting actionable design and content recommendations.

This was an insightful group project where each team member contributed to evaluating the digital storefront of a major ethnic grocery chain with an ever-growing audience in North America.

The Problem

While H Mart is a well-known and trusted brand, its online presence didn’t fully reflect its scale or customer value. The interface often felt cluttered, navigation lacked consistency, and some features that are standard on competitors’ sites—like detailed product information or user-generated reviews—were missing.

Users looking for quick purchases or specific products could easily feel overwhelmed or unsure of where to go next.

How might we help Hmart improve their website’s user experience and content clarity, so that customers can shop efficiently without confusion—ultimately increasing trust and boosting customer satisfaction?

The Research

We began our evaluation by taking a methodical approach, starting broad and narrowing in on specific user experience issues:

Competitor Analysis

We studied key players in the grocery e-commerce space—T&T, Loblaws, and Whole Foods—to understand how they structure their websites, communicate their brand, and streamline the shopping experience.

These platforms showcased clear navigation, rich product content, customer reviews, loyalty features, and mobile responsiveness. We identified specific features from each that were worth emulating or adapting for H Mart, such as:

  • Clear homepage hierarchy and promotional banners.
  • Intuitive product filters and refined search tools.
  • Detailed product pages with ingredient lists and customer feedback.

Heuristic Evaluation

Using Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics as a guide, we performed a heuristic review of H Mart’s site. This helped us evaluate the website’s usability beyond surface-level design.

Key findings included:
  • Match between system and the real world: Confusing terminology and mislabeled categories.
  • Consistency and standards: Inconsistent page layouts and button behaviours.
  • Visibility of system status: Lack of clear feedback during user actions (e.g. adding items to cart).
  • Error prevention: No clear messaging for out-of-stock items or unavailable locations.

This exercise provided a deeper layer of insight into how users might experience friction or confusion throughout the journey.

Current State Analysis

We evaluated H Mart’s website page-by-page, documenting usability issues, inconsistencies, and gaps. Our focus areas included:

  • Homepage: Overloaded with offers, lacking visual balance and clear CTAs.
  • Navigation and Menus: Confusing category labels, broken links, and poor product grouping.
  • Product Listings: Sparse product info, missing filters, and inconsistent formatting.
  • Mobile View: Text overlapping, misplaced buttons, and low accessibility standards.

This analysis helped us connect user frustrations to structural and content-level problems.

Recommendations

From our findings, we proposed key improvements:

  • Restructure homepage layout with clearer CTAs.
  • Implement consistent visual hierarchy using whitespace and headings.
  • Add user reviews and better descriptions to product pages.
  • Improve filtering systems to support quicker decision-making.
  • Ensure accessibility standards for fonts, contrast, and mobile responsiveness.

Final Thoughts

This project gave us a hands-on opportunity to look at an established brand from a UX/UI and content lens. It was about going beyond assumptions—using research and analysis to advocate for a better user journey.

The mix of design, content strategy, and usability testing made this one of our most well-rounded collaborative projects.

Reflection

We learned how to evaluate a digital product holistically—from visual design to content structure.

  • Our group collaboration was seamless and insightful; we leaned on each other’s strengths to critique and improve every page.
  • Personally, I found myself diving deeper into accessibility and the importance of consistent visual cues.
  • If we had more time, I would’ve liked to explore interactive prototypes for a few of the recommendations.
  • Better planning around content strategy would’ve helped us shape stronger narrative flows for the site.

Overall, this project solidified the importance of user-first thinking—especially in high-frequency platforms like e-commerce sites.

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