Project Overview
the problem
The swatch store lets customers order fabric samples before they buy custom upholstered furniture. It's also Interior Define's primary acquisition point. Users struggled to select which fabric samples they wanted to order due to an ever-increasing assortment of 140+ fabrics.
MY ROLE
This feature started as my personal Hack Day project that I convinced the business to develop. As the only product designer on this project, I led user testing, competitive analysis, and stakeholder meetings. I worked very closely with product managers, developers, and business stakeholders.
About interior define
Interior Define is a made-to-order furniture company that specializes in creating sofas that meet customers’ needs. Customization options include collections, configurations, fabrics, legs, sizes, and more.
Considerations & Goals
- Increase conversion rate of the swatch store (and therefore overall website, since it’s the main acquisition landing page)
- Help customers narrow down their fabric choices with a friendly, engaging, and supportive quiz
- Create a design that requires low development effort by using the existing store and filters as a framework
- Design a flow that could be tested, tweaked, and updated as the fabric assortment changes
- Support the majority of customers who land on this page from ads on their phone with a mobile-first design
- Use imagery and copy to introduce customers to the brand while explaining the fabric options
- Develop quiz questions that make customers feel comfortable and listened to
- Encourage the customer to provide their email for sales leads and personalization – but in a manner that feels helpful, not pushy
Competitive & Comparative Research
I analyzed and mapped out features from other sites with swatches, sample offerings, or similar quiz flows. I paid attention to what felt fun and engaging versus what felt overwhelming.
Iterate, User Test, Repeat
Once I had my priorities defined, I began to iterate through different design directions. After checking in with the development team for feasibility, I prototyped and user tested different designs until I found the most successful paths.
Initial design
One example of how I integrated user feedback into the design was in the critical email-capturing step. Originally, I had phrased the step as “saving” your quiz results, since that is how the majority of other e-commerce companies approach this step.
user feedback
The feedback I got from users was overwhelmingly negative (even though there was an option to skip the step). Users expressed feeling “tricked” and “angry” and some said they would not even continue if they saw this step.
Updated design
I pivoted the phrasing be about receiving one-on-one support from a Design Expert instead. The user interpretation completely flipped – many expressed that this was a unique and helpful feature that they would opt into. Even users that said the offering wasn’t for them finished the quiz feeling positive about the experience.
Before
After
From Idea to Reality
For a time there was little room for new features in the roadmap due to a complete website replatform and company acquisition. I used some of that time to user test and iterate on any future projects – including the swatch store quiz.
Once the dust settled, it was clear that the goals post-acquisition were generating more sales leads and increasing user trust. I knew the developer lift for the swatch quiz was quite low, plus it had been user tested and generally approved by stakeholders.
I pitched the swatch quiz to leadership, including the benefits, effort level, and data showing that this was a feature that customers were looking for. With them on board, the quiz was developed and recently released on the site.
Final Design
The quiz is live on the site, but is being tested through social and email before a CTA is added to the swatch store.
Try out the quiz for yourself here
What’s Next
Since this quiz was designed to be quickly developed so we could test and iterate, we cut it down to MVP features. However, once we have performance measurements, there are a few updates planned.
One update includes adding a "sort" attribute to the swatches that would allow the Merchandising team to rank them based on sales and stock availability.
A sort attribute would allow us to present an intermediate page to the customers that narrows down their quiz results to 10 or fewer fabrics so they can go straight to checkout.
