FTD Redesign
My Role and Activities:
Guide Design Strategy | Design Vision | User Research | User Experience Design | Foster Collaborative among all brands within United Online
Gift giving should be a delightful experience for both the givers and the receivers. Designing that experience encompasses everything that happens from the moment a browser hears of our brand to the point that the recipient experiences the gift. Like many companies, FTD was focused on optimizing the transactional conversion and missed the opportunity to improve the overall experience, which significantly impacted acquisition and retention. When United Online purchased FTD, I led the experience design improvement effort for the primary touchpoints, including online and the physical package design.Problem:
The online flower purchase funnel was confusing, and each bouquet's background image was different. This created a visual distraction and resulted in a high cart abandonment rate. Solution:
Redesigned the entire site and packaging. Created personalized experience highlighting the relevant add-on options instead of an overwhelming list of possible options. Arranged professional photoshoots for all bouquets to create a consistent background for people to compare multiple options when choosing flowers.Process:
Our CEO tasked me to lead the redesign effort to work with the FTD team that United Online acquired. I was mindful of being inclusive of the potential concerns of the team members’ performance and job security. I also empowered them to elevate their skills and knowledge to improve the user experience. After analyzing the traffic and conversion data, I set up a brainstorming session and listened to the team’s feedback. They had not conducted any user research before, so I helped set up a testing facility and encouraged the design and product teams to conduct user research to understand the consumer’s expectations and pain points better. They were excited to learn directly from their customers. After the research, we strategized the vision and developed the experience map. I helped the team to define the goals and prioritize the objectives. Our goal was to delight both the gift giver and the receiver. We studied luxury brands for inspiration, mocked up prototypes of the physical package design, and tested the new concepts. We narrowed down the design options, and I helped them to set up A/B testing on their website. Helping the team to learn a better way to collect user feedback turned out to be a positive experience for them to improve the experience for their customers. Impact:
Increased engagement, revenue per order, and return purchases.