Who - REI
When - Oct 2019 to April 2020
How - Sketch, Abstract, Figma, UserTesting
With - Product Managers, Developers
As - UX Researcher, Interaction Designer, Visual Designer
Problem
The previous store pages didn’t properly or dynamically represent the uniqueness of each physical location. This exposed a gap in the dual-channel experience for the business and customers. Redesigning these pages meant creating valuable and flexible templates that focused on meeting customer needs and improving operational efficiency. This was important to solve because we wanted to help our customers set the right expectations to drive successful store visits, and help our store employees better manage their local presence.
What I Did
Business Needs & Lo-Fis | Starting with a plethora of business requirements & early user research, I created various lo-fidelity designs in order to visually represent all of the stakeholders’ needs.
User Research | I turned to user testing in order to ground the design in users’ needs. I conducted a moderated, remote open card sort to clarify the information architecture of these pages and determine the best ways to prioritize content. Learning about how users plan a store visit informed my design in many ways, such as which questions they rely on the branded site for versus other platforms such as Google.
Hi-Fis & Validation Testing | Based on my user research, I created hi-fidelity designs using REI’s Cedar Design System and presented to all the stakeholders with positive feedback. Because a key part of this experience is dual-channel, I also went in-store to conduct usability tests, which helped disprove my hypothesis on if there’d be broken expectations with how the search field was being used in different sections. I learned that users thought more contextually and treated those sections separately instead of comparing them.
Dev Collab | From there, I handed off my designs to the developers and collaborated with them through implementation. Together, we decided what would be appropriate for the MVP and future iterations.
Success Metrics | To help inform future iterations, I helped set up benchmark intercept surveys to measure success over time and learn how to grow into each local market better. Success means users got the information they needed, they accomplish their task in-store because of this page, and they gain new awareness about our offerings.
The final design, balancing user and business needs