Team LeadershipI led the development of the digital experience strategy. I directed the responsive design of a large enterprise retail site to increase conversion rates, online sales, revenue, and customer satisfaction with the online experience. I looked for opportunities for operational efficiencies by utilizing out-of-the-box functionality, where possible, that mapped back to best practices. As a team leader, I worked heavily with the client, trying to understand their needs. I also scheduled regular meetings with my team to ensure we remained in sync. I reviewed all wireframes and designs and ensured they met the design aesthetic and accomplished the goals we set out to achieve. I created a board that reflected the guiding principles we identified early in the engagement to ensure we all spoke the same language in experience design presentations. I guided the designers to help them think through solutions and the implications of design choices. I worked closely with developers to ensure we made the best use of the technology and made decisions for compromises.
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OverviewLowe's, a large international retail company, partnered with EPAM to reimagine its digital site experience and create a flexible foundation that empowered it to drive its business while leveraging as much out-of-the-box content management system functionality as possible.
Project Needs: User Experience Design Digital Strategy Role: Experience Lead Led a team of 4 designers |
Challenge
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ActionUnderstanding the Business and the TechnologyUnderstanding the Business and the Market
I conducted stakeholder interviews and workshops to explore how users currently engage with the brand, their business goals, and their offerings and capabilities. Additionally, I led in-depth regional research to gain insights into the market across various areas and identify opportunities within the sector. Understanding the Ecosystem and the Technology I identified and evaluated various touchpoints within the ecosystem to better understand how Lowe's could effectively implement an omnichannel experience. I collaborated closely with the development team to understand the technical capabilities of different tools that could assist the business in achieving its goals. Analyzing the Site I led the team in conducting a heuristic analysis to determine how well the site met user experience best practices. Separately, I worked with analytics experts to understand conversion rates, entry points, and bounce rates and which page entry points resulted in the highest conversion rates. During this, I also reviewed how well products appeared in search results. Developing Deep Customer InsightsConvincing Program Leadership to Allow Us to Conduct Research
Initially, because Lowe's had already done some user research, the program manager hesitated to do customer research. Because the research was specific to how people used the site rather than the broader goals they intended to accomplish, it didn't provide enough information to design a system that genuinely engaged users. With that argument, I convinced program leadership to conduct a small quick study that would enable us to find deep motivations to bring customers to Lowe's for their needs. Conducting the Research and Developing Alignment Artifacts I led a team to conduct user research to understand the mental models, needs, and pain points in completing tasks that Lowe's and similar stores can help customers accomplish. With that research to create alignment and to visualize the experience, I led the creation of journey maps for each persona that used the current website. Those journey maps displayed touchpoints, pain, and emotions and were used to identify opportunities for the organization to create brand loyalty and trust. Those journey maps also helped describe the opportunities where Lowe's could improve the experience. Many opportunities extended beyond the online site with opportunities for improvement to contact centers, artificial intelligence, personalization, augmented reality, and social media strategies. |
Identifying OpportunitiesThrough the discovery, I led the team in developing several major issue themes:
Developing an Experience VisionI created strategic guideposts based on user research, stakeholder interviews, and market research that contained the vision, personas, and journey maps. These guideposts enabled the team to prioritize what features were essential to the design and how to approach the design for various parts of the experience.
Developing an Effective Information ArchitectureOne of the issues with the previous site was the lack of structure. The way Lowe's grouped the pages within the content tree was not intuitive to the user. This grouping caused problems with the breadcrumb trail and the ease of creating navigation for the organization. I provided guidance on approaches to define the information architecture better. I recommended the team conduct card-sorting activities. The team ran several card sorts to determine a base structure that was intuitive and then validated that structure using tree testing. I directed the team to create a living sitemap (using collaborative software) so that it could become the basis for the migration map for the content team.
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Improving Search and NavigationMy goal was to improve the relevance of search results and promote and expose non-product content. I wanted to ensure that users could easily understand the breadth of offerings from the organization. In addition, because the markets we were serving valued coupons and promotions, I also wanted to ensure we exposed that information prominently within the navigation. For the mobile experience, I wanted to ensure we understood the context in which users might use the phone to ensure we made the right menu items easily accessible when using the responsive site. We also surfaced related services and content for various products within the navigation to provide strong cues for the different offerings. We also focused on self-service to ensure users could easily find the solutions to their problems
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Improving Content Connectedness for Streamlined ExperienceOne of the most significant improvements the team and I made was better organizing and surfacing ideas and how-tos. This type of content drives conversions because users can quickly see how to use the products they view. I wanted to create a library for this content that was easily searchable and could be surfaced dynamically at the right place, at the right time, to the right person. I had the team create a tagging taxonomy, allowing users to narrow their search for ideas and how-tos quickly. Lowe's could also use this taxonomy to drive personalization and ensure the right types of content go out for specific types of campaigns.
Designing the Flow and the ExperienceFlows and Elevating Important Content
I directed the team to create flow diagrams to ensure we understood the tasks users needed to complete and how each page would support those tasks. For each user task identified in our story maps, I worked with the team to think about the strategic guideposts and the various users' needs, context, and motivations to ensure we created the right experience for the different user types. These guideposts were essential for the shopping, cart, and checkout flows. The team and I worked to ensure these were as seamless as possible, garnered trust, and provided the right information at the right time throughout these flows, from if the item was in stock to how many days it would take to ship to providing promotion codes throughout the flow, making it easier to use. Omni Channel Experience I also led the team in thinking through the in-store experience and how people use the information on the web before, during, and after they shop. That allowed the team to include the correct information at the right time, including a store locator, what store you are shopping from, the number in stock, and the promotion of coupons when viewing a product. Mobile-first and Modular I also directed the team to use a mobile-first approach to ensure we created an experience that would work seamlessly regardless of the device. To ensure the business could easily place content (especially deals and coupons) throughout the website, I led the team in developing a modular system where components stack as the user views the information on different viewports. We added banners that Lowe's could use to promote regional and seasonal content. |
Holding People's Hands Through the Checkout ExperienceI led the team to design an experience that provided the right information to usher users through the sales funnel at the right time. When customers interact with Lowe's online, they do not have the benefit of talking to a sales rep. We wanted to design an experience that helps customers answer questions while researching products and deciding whether to purchase. We wanted to improve their experience by letting them know what to expect along the way. We incorporated content that inspires users and speaks to the benefits of purchasing a particular product (e.g., romance copy) – rather than solely providing a bulleted list of specs. We layered in tools and calculators that supported decision-making. We highlighted and elevated important features and constraints such as value proposition, savings, clearance guidance, pricing (per item rather than total), and box dimensions. We designed the experience to ensure that item and inventory statuses were transparent (e.g., showing inventory in a store and inventory at multiple stores quickly) and provided alternatives if the item is available by another or a similar item is available. Our designs helped users select the correct delivery method by providing door-to-door time estimates and offering upgraded shipping options.
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Help Guide Users to Products They'll LovePurchasing the right product involves a variety of decision criteria, extensive research, and varying emotions. Therefore, it is essential to support users with the right information regardless of where they are in the shopping process (e.g., learning, comparing, selecting). I led the team in cleaning up and leveraging product data to generate more intuitive facet options and product comparison tables. I also guided the team in tailoring facets and filters and their arrangement and labeling by product type map to users' product search and decision-making criteria. To make it easier to find the right product, I had the team include non-functional attributes such as style or trend. Our designs removed extraneous or confusing facets such as features (e.g., exceptional value). Finally, I worked with the analytics team to use analytics to determine which filters customers utilized and rearranged, removed, expanded/collapsed by default those filters.
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Using Existing ComponentsI guided the team in identifying and using legacy components to speed up the design process. The goal is not to recreate the wheel. However, many components were not mobile-friendly and or tested with users.
Collaboration, Design Jams and Agile Delivery
To ensure timely delivery, I employed an agile framework, a scheduling system used for developing complex products. I directed the team to track the work tasks on a Jira board and requirements for each component in Confluence. Using the board and daily stand-up meetings, I was able to track progress, risks and issues and report them weekly to the CTO for support in mitigating risks and removing bottlenecks to ensure on-time delivery. I held design reviews where I checked all wireframes and designs to ensure they met the design aesthetic and accomplished project goals. For each feature, I led design jam sessions bringing together the business, the developers, business analysts and designers to think through the design of various features. I also directed the team to iteratively test and design the major flows and features with users.
Creating a System for SustainabilityAs the team and I worked through features, I directed the team to document each component, how to use each component and its specs. As new features were being created based on scenarios we knew users would experience, we utilized the building blocks created. We modified them when they didn't quite work in a particular scenario. Each component and the elements that made up those components were set within our sketch files so team members could efficiently utilize components and elements, keeping the look and feel consistent. I worked to ensure each component and element made the experience feel cohesive and that the components made for an optimal experience. We captured this information in Confluence.
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Results
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