Case Studies
Tiny snapshot of recent work - better to talk to me, there's so much to cover - let's cherry pick what you need to know....
Argos:
High revenue impact through cross business collaboration & interpreting user data correctly
The problem
The product listing page for the business was cluttered with ads and deals. They felt it was the best place to promote the BIG deals. (It's not - it never is - that's like walking through the door of a shop and having 20 leaflets thrown at you - most of which have nothing to do with why you came here today).
For users it’s a navigation page – it signposts them to where they want to go.
Research (quant & qual) showed this was not the opportune place to place deals. The sweet spot for deals is while the user is solving their specific need.
What we did
User tracking showed people clicking on the deals – showing intention & obviously a need for the promotions. The business felt that proved it was the right design.
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Users' (in lab) feedback told us they weren’t interested & it was distracting. They wanted relevant and in context deals – ie while they are purchasing.
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We collaborated and compromised – limited to 2 ads at the top and 6 at the bottom. Made it easier and quicker to get the users to their destination and still allowed the business to promote. (Note: Argos users are task focused - it's not a destination site - so you have to make sure you promote at the right time, in the right place. They won't proactively come tothe site to seek them out except on specific sale type days - Black Friday etc. ).
Impact
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A/B tested the new approach on 2 of the least popular categories to see if it worked.
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It had a 23% uplift in basket – extrapolated across all categories this would increase revenue substantially across the year.
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Reprioritised the backlog to update all PLPs to provide clear purchase pathways across all categories – directly driving bottom line revenue - by hundreds of thousands!
BTFG:
Transforming multiple legacy systems into 21st Centrury Web and mobile app
The problem
BTFG financial advisors used multiple spreadsheets and legacy software to pull together their customers' investments and pensions.
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Panorama was a full scale implementation. It brought all of the investment products for both advisors and their clients into a single webapp and mobile app with a complete rebrand.
What we did
I ran a multidisciplinary team – UX, UI, VD, Research, Copy across 26 streams. It was in total a 4 year project to the first launch and then ongoing iterations. A consistent, simplified, intuitive - and - I would say - beautiful interface.
I Also advocated Agile methods & successfully worked to embed them across the organization.
I drove design led methods – and we covered the walls of the - previously strict - banking environment in so much paper they had no choice but to be enveloped in the process!
Impact
Full suite of wealth management tools in one place for BT customers - the first of its kind. It included your investments, pension, trading and all your financial recommendations.​
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Consolidation means tighter stickiness for customers - more useful recommendations which means more efffective upsell / cross sell, increasing basket size and overall revenue per head and CLV.
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A suite of easy to access tools for Financial Advisers to forecast and recommend investments with prospects and customers.
“At last I have something I can show my clients”
Furniture revolution
Marks & Spencer: Online and store: Reinvent the furniture dept directly increasing revenues
The problem
Marks and Spencer has a Home business – part of which is selling sofas. Online interaction was low and fewer and fewer stores were selling the full range. The entire service needed an overhaul – beyond purchase; from sending swatches to delivery.
What we did
I put a small crack team of 2 designers to work collaboratively with everyone involved with the furniture chain. Our user researchers went into store and uncovered the personas and their buying behaviours.
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We brought all the departments together - from buyers to logistics - shared the research and workshopped a service blueprint map to find problem areas and identify opportunities. We then sized the work needed to rectify and the group prioritized what to work on first.
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Developers worked with the designers to create a sofa configurator and make it easier to choose. We knew from the research what information they needed – including “will it fit” and how to measure.
Impact
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​Customers could view in store but then make decisions later. We introduced digital tools in store to help customers visualize their new sofa – while they could touch the fabric and bounce on the seats.
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From release there was 16% uplift in conversion (£2.5m - £3m incremental sales pa)
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Bonus - happy connected teams who had never worked as a cross-business collaborative team before. It was fast and rapid - unheard of in a behmoth like M&S
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Side effect - through this work we realised that pricing for larger options had been incorrectly calculated, losing the company money - so - that got rectified!
SEEK: Removing silos - aligning digital with marketing for consistent touchpoints
The problem
Arriving at SEEK - an iconic dot com brand in Australia - the website was completely disconnected from the brand.
The brand is strong and humorous. The experience on the website was devoid of it's personality and had wandered down a strange illustrative route.
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(I had the same issue with Marks and Spencer - Marketing never considered the digital channels with their new campaigns. And M&S campaigns are BIG. Digital was always an after thought - and they never understood that it wasn't just a case of swapping out images).
What we did
Aligning with the marketing team to understand the brand values, we refreshed the website, removing those elements that didn't portray the brand effectively.
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The best part was taking some of the current campaigns and using them for 404 and error pages.
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(at M&S - I worked with Marketing so we were included at the beginning of campaigns and on our side, we made sure digital had the flexibility to adapt and showcase/integrate the campaign)
Impact
Instead of irritating users when pages didn't load - we made them smile.
Consistency of brand across the touch points; a website with some personality and, internally, cross functional harmony.
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(For M&S the impact was more substantial - it meant a consistent approach for campaigns across stores, media and digital. It was a large project - making the digital channels flexible to adapt to imagery, tags and themes without a full redesign).
Stanford Medical: Helping frontline Covid medical staff
The problem
Stanford Medical wanted an app for frontline covid staff so they could recalibrate or use techniques to help with their mental health.​​
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Beyond a wellness app this was based on cognitive and behavioural psychological techniques.
What we did
I did the wireframes (in the UK) and worked with the design firm (in India) while working with the client in the USA.
I was brought in to help rescue the app – the development team (also in India) hadn’t manage to realise an effective workflow.
It’s one of my favourite projects – because you don’t often get to be part of an app that is doing good. It also used my psychology background and that helped me gel with the team in Stanford and empathise with what we needed to achieve.