First time UX for Best Buy's Retail App
Role
Lead UX/UI Design
UX Research
Team
Project Management Intern
Software Engineering Intern
Project Advisor
Timeline
12 weeks
June - Sept 2019
Tools
Sketch
Invision
Zeplin
Illustrator
User-Testing.com
During summer of 2019, I interned as a UX designer on Best Buy's mobile application team. For my primary project, I worked on developing an onboarding experience for first-time app users on a team with a project manager and a developer.
Overview
The challenge
The Best Buy retail app has three million monthly active users who research and purchase products, track orders, manage rewards accounts and more. When users are signed-in, the app supports a personalized shopping experience curated to their preferred store, order history, and preferences. Currently, the app does not guide new users through sign-in or preference configuration upon download. As a result, 26% less users sign-in on first-time visits compared to returning visits; an opportunity to strategically communicate with first-time users is missed.
The approach
We created a contextual and interactive onboarding experience with the objective to set first-time users up for a more personalized shopping experience and ultimately encourage app adoption. Due to the scale of this project and stakeholder risk concerns, it was adapted and broken down into notification, sign-in, and location components to A/B test separately as a minimum viable product.
Results of the modified concept A/B test
7.3%
Net opt-in rate
78%
Push notification deny rate
The current first time user experience lacks guidance and enables passive click-through
How might we streamline the app set-up process to minimize future friction points and convey the app value to first-time users?
My contribution
Because this project had high visibility, there were several stakeholders to communicate with throughout the design process. I facilitated a kick-off session with project managers and developers to align expectations for design requirements.
As the sole designer and researcher, I took the lead on conducting user research and competitive analysis and organized synthesis sessions with the retail app team.
I hosted a card sorting design studio to gather ideas and create design concepts. I used Sketch and InVision to create interactive prototypes and facilitated usability testing with 15 app users to inform iterations.
My takeaways
Through navigating roadblocks, working with different disciplines, and getting feedback from UX mentors, I grew as both a designer and a collaborator. Here are some of my biggest takeaways:
Advocating for UX
While working closely with product managers, I learned the value of leveraging user experience in a business related problem area. Inviting product managers and developers to design studios helped balance priorities and uncover how user needs and metric goals can support each other.
Communication with Stakeholders
Designing for a large scope of users meant several product teams were impacted by our feature. Regular product & design syncs helped create transparency and align goals early on, as well as gain relevant expertise from different teams.
Building Relationships
I made the most progress and struck the most inspiration by meeting with other designers, sharing work and roadblocks, and talking through process. I learned the value of proactivity in reaching out to people outside my team for input and feedback.
