Side-By-Side Stuff
Client
Nivel Role
Lead UI/UX Designer Tools
Figma, Illustrator & Photoshop Time Frame
March 2022 (Paused) 
Summary
Due to a sharp decrease in conversions and sales down 40% over previous year, I was tasked to do an audit of the current state of the website with our UX architect and third party developers. I would then use the data from the audit, GA and data from our Analytics team to redesign the website. While working through the audio I completed desktop wireframes and started mock-ups and a homepage prototype but the project was paused after the current leadership reviewed the findings of the audit. They planned to work with the new leadership team once they started to decide on what we would do next. I left the company before the new team started.
The Challenge
Side-by-Side Stuff was acquired by Nivel in 2020 but the website was not handed off to the internal ecommerce team until early in 2022. Sales were down 40% when our team took over the website so I was tasked to do an audit of the website and provide details on areas of improvement. I worked with our Lead UX Architect and the third party developers to pull together the technologies used in the platform. The website is using Yahoo Ecommerce and with a lot of customization. The website is responsive but does not use any responsive frameworks.
We discovered that there are two versions of the website which at first appeared to be the same but the version that’s served up on mobile was missing elements since it was not being updated as the responsive desktop version was. The sidebar navigation needed an overhaul and moved to the top. The categories have no filtering or pagination to sort through 199 brands in the Shop By Brands category. The Shop By Category section was just as bad with sub categories for each Make/Model but all categories using the same product image. Besides the redesign of the front end of the website, the merchandising team will have an even larger task in resolving the categorization of the categories and products. The third party developers were open to do any updates I came up with but looking at the code of the website I was not sure they could and others on the team and leadership shared the concerns.
The Solution
While working through the audit with the team’s UI Architect and developers I started a UI Kit with a request from the CMO to look at updating the brands Green and Orange colors so they “popped” more. I also started on wireframes and a mock-up of the new homepage. I proposed we add pagination to all levels of category pages and reduce the number of categories / products displayed on those pages. I also proposed an alphabetical filter for the Shop By Brands. The developers agreed and said they could implement the new features during the redesign process.
The Results
The UI Architect and I presented the findings of our audit, and design assets to our leadership and it was decided to pause the project until after further review with new leadership that was joining the company. While the project was not completed while I was still with the company, it was a good exercise. I plan to finish the ui kit and other assets as a personal project.
