Zumiez redesign

I led a site redesign and mobile optimization project of 15 people; including agency partners, developers, researchers, managers and data analysts for zumiez.com.

Previous shop front design on desktop — The previous home page

The problem

Analysis of site tracking data indicated significant customer drop-off from key shopping destination pages (the home page, category pages), an over reliance on the search functionality, and an under developed mobile experience to convert over 80% of traffic. I conducted a UX site audit to map pain points in the customer journey and opportunities to improve discoverability.

The primary target customer segment is 12 - 22 years old, so an optimized experience for both direct search and browsing what’s new and cool was our goal. I completed a competitive analysis and pitched the design strategy to leadership for sign off on a redesign.

The solution

Customer card sort exercise

I conducted a customer usability test with the cooperation of two research partners to better map product categories, subcategories and filters to create a superior information architecture and create a taxonomy guide.

Team brainstorm

I led a workshop sketch session to share the findings from the customer usability testing, gather ideas and align the stakeholders on a shared vision.

Wireframes

I created desktop and mobile wireframes for the site menu, navigation, shop fronts and filters. Myself and my research partners tested a prototype with customers in store and based on the feedback I created a set of final wireframe designs for the marketing team to skin and worked with the development team to implement.

A critical research finding incorporated into the mockups was the inclusion of gendered identity categories. A hypothesis posed by leadership was that we should do away with gender labels to better serve Generation Z customers. The research insights proved otherwise as customers struggled to navigate the site without the use of gender labels. Users preferred to make a conscious choice to shop via their desired gender of choice.