CLIENT
UScellular
RESPONSIBILITIES
Visual/UI design
UX strategy
UX strategy
GOAL
Improve UI and search functionality to create a more cohesive experience when searching across uscellular.com.
CHALLENGE
The eCommerce website was originally built using two different on-site search tools, one for static and another for dynamic areas of the site, which resulted in a disconnect in the look and experience when searching from either educational or shopping pages. One of these tools needed improvements that could help to unify the appearance and user experience, and make the search experience more seamless site-wide.
While designing the user interface, there were a number of factors to consider, including designing for multiple screen sizes and meeting accessibility standards. Additionally, to align with the company's recent rebranding, new visual styles needed to be integrated as they were rolled out onto the rest of the site.
Sample search UI, demonstrating autocomplete function once 3+ characters are entered into the search bar.
Sample search results page. When a user enters an incomplete search term, the system is designed to default to product-based results, with shopping being the most common use case for search within the eCommerce site.
PROCESS
My role in this project was to create pixel-perfect visual designs, which would provide styling specs for the development team, while also serving as a visual reference for the project team as user experience needs and functional requirements were established.
Collaborating closely with the UX architect, we did a competitive analysis on search engines and other eCommerce sites with search and filtering. In addition to researching common requirements and user expectations for search engines, we also considered the unique mindset of UScellular site visitors, reviewing the most common tasks they might be doing on the site, and what may provoke someone to use the search function. Decisions were further informed by user testing and analytics data.
Collaborating closely with the UX architect, we did a competitive analysis on search engines and other eCommerce sites with search and filtering. In addition to researching common requirements and user expectations for search engines, we also considered the unique mindset of UScellular site visitors, reviewing the most common tasks they might be doing on the site, and what may provoke someone to use the search function. Decisions were further informed by user testing and analytics data.
SOLUTION
Home page redesign
The resulting
Process
As the project team collaborated to assemble requirements for the project, the UX architect and I researched search experience user flows and UI patterns, gathering inspiration from on-site search engines used by eCommerce sites both within and outside of our industry. Beyond the baseline functional requirements, our research helped to inform important recommendations for the user flow, such as organizing results in an intuitive way, predicting the user's intention, and determining the most useful content to include in a search result, while also working within any technical limitations of the tool and available site data.
Campaign landing page
The campaign
Interactive web app
An additional
