Elevating the luxury retail shopping experience
I led research and UX design of reimagined customer and stylist journeys that enhance the shopping experience and deepen relationships for Forty Five Ten, a high-end retailer.
Project goals
Rethink online and offline shopping journey to support opening of NYC location
Enhance relationships between retail stylist salespeople and their clients
Incorporate data, beacons and other enhancements to the shopping experience
My role
I led research, strategy and UX design of the digital and physical experiences; working closely with client, strategy, design and tech teams.
Discovery
Research and inspiration through immersion
My team and I visited Forty Five Ten and other retailers, spoke with customers, interviewed salespeople, analyzed fashion apps and read up on industry trends.
I then documented and presented our observations to Forty Five Ten stakeholders. The key insight was:
Time is the ultimate luxury
Brainstorming
Generating ideas
I noted ideas that came up during discovery and brainstormed potential features with my team. I then synthesized, grouped and prioritized them based on our research.
Ideating
Sketching the experience
As we narrowed the feature focus, I started sketching our ideas and exploring the details of client and stylist journeys.
For example, a bluetooth beacon would notify a stylist that a client is near, allowing them to prepare the fitting room with curated items and be ready to greet them.
User journeys
Defining the ecosystem
Our strategy was to focus on delighting customers by anticipating their needs, curating their experience and making every moment memorable.
I created an ecosystem journey map to show the details of online and offline interactions between shoppers and stylists. The map also details the role of data in providing a frictionless experience before, during and after purchase.
Wireframing
Visualizing the experience
I focused the shopping experience on curation and exploration, featuring new ways to interact with products, stylist suggestions, exclusive collections and events.
Crafting the shopping journey
I focused the shopping experience on curation and exploration, featuring new ways to interact with products, stylist suggestions, exclusive collections and events.
Swipe to save items
Personalized suggestions
Shop in the app
Consult a stylist
Capturing key details
This example shows the flow of a live digital trunk show that blends streaming video and curated collections to sell products and create unique brand moments.
Crafting the retail stylist experience
Speaking with stylists and observing their interactions helped me prioritize info that matters to them, like upcoming appointments, new clients and sales statistics.
The company's creative director would curate industry updates, ensuring stylists have timely and relevant info to enhance their client relationships.
Real-time Apple Watch notifications would let them know when a client is near.
Key info on the dashboard
Client list and calendar
Curated industry updates
Real-time notifications
My wireframes evolved into a functional prototype that was used to test the experience and guide design.
Outcome
I worked closely with the creative team on the final design of the of the experience. Elements of our designs were also incorporated into the Forty Five Ten site.
