Member Loyalty Program
Project Overview
Capitalizing on a user-centered iterative design process allowed me to focus on the understanding and needs of a typical Miles Kimball website user. It was because of this process that I was able to create a member loyalty program experience that solved not only the lack of customer return rates, it also increased the number of email sign ups and conversion rates.
The Challenge
Since its beginning in 1935, Miles Kimball has been a catalog based company, that is, until recently. Attempting to reach a more broad customer base, the company launched a website in March of 2000.
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Although the company has seen a large increase in their customer base since launching their website, Miles Kimball continued to struggle maintaining customers that repeat their online visits and purchases more than once a year.
Tools Used
Adobe XD
InVision
Zeplin
Photoshop
Monetate
User Testing
My Approach
Creating a member loyalty program will encourage customers to visit the site more often. The program will also enable the company to gain more in depth data on logged in members. That data will then allow Miles Kimball to personalize the online experience of each member to present more of what interests them, ultimately leading to higher conversions and return rates to the website.
Miles Kimball Site Elements
Colors
Checkbox & Forms
Buttons
Icons
Typography
Stage 1
Research
Stage 2
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Design
Testing
Stage 3
Development
1
Research
The research phase is the key to creating an informed user experience. Although included in every UX/UI project, the research phase is the most variable between projects.
Coming out of the research phase, I wanted to achieve three main goals:
1. Find the best way to streamline the checkout process for customers.
2. Find ways to encourage users to come back multiple times a year instead of just once a year.
3. Find ways to get customers to sign in during their visit to the site so we could gain better analytical data to later target and provide better more personalized experiences to them.
Competitive Research
I wanted to see what other sites were doing and what could be improved to best fit the experience on the Miles Kimball site.
Over the course of several weeks* I was able to put together enough information to start working through the user flow.
*I also had to research the email techniques of the companies since this was a completely new feature to Miles Kimball which caused the research process to run longer than normal.
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*Click on any image to enlarge it.
2
Design & Testing
Steve Jobs once said:
"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
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Designing a satisfying user experience involves meticulously planning a customer journey for the users and helping them find what they are looking for through an intuitive process. Typically, this intuitive process involves information architecture (IA). IA provides structure, labels, and organized content to help lead the design direction.
User Testing
Based on the research that I had obtained, I determined that creating a customer loyalty program would be the best route to achieve the goals of the company and myself.
To gain a better understanding of Miles Kimball customer thoughts on loyalty-type programs, I conducted a user test which walked users through a standard online shopping experience. During this test, I was able to extract key thoughts and ideas that the customers had.
Rough Drafts:
Information Architecture & Design
After completing my research and user test, I was able to analyze the information I had gathered and created the first versions of the information architecture.
*Click on any image to enlarge it.
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3
Development
Traditionally, the final stage of UX projects includes working with the developer team to bring the design and experience to life. The video below walks through the final design and gives an idea of how the experience will function once developed.
