AppDirect Variants
15% faster to online shop creation
At AppDirect I lead the design of the catalogue management and variants portals, delivering seamless, user-friendly solutions to help large B2B businesses setup their online shops faster.
My Role
Sr designer
Team
Development squad (5 team members)
Product Manger
Challenge
Creating a large amount (100s) of products for a digital market place is often fragmented and difficult to navigate. AppDirect needed to create a feature that helped streamline processes, improve accessibility, and allow users to be confident in the products that were being listed.
Objective
Users needed a quick, easy, and comprehensive way to create/edit/update their catalogue and variants.
Lower cognitive load for the user by reducing steps to build the catalogue and reduce the fragmented experience.
Allow for bulk editing for quick and easy editing of multiple variants and products.
Introduce accessibility navigation
Video prototype for developer hand off
Approach
Research and Exploration
With large players in the market already, BigCommerce and something that rhymes with Popify …, there were existing patterns we could match to help the flow feel familiar for the users and work with established best practices.
Catalogue and Variants Design and development
I collaborated closely with B2b partners (ABB, Vodafone, etc) and stakeholders to design a variants flow that prioritizes ease of use and addresses real-world pain points. Prototyping and iterative testing ensured user needs were met at every stage
Workshops and Collaboration
I conducted user workshops with our B2B partners and other design team members to gain insights, validation of design decisions, and refine workflows. Leveraged tools like micro and fig jam to brainstorm. We also hosted bi-weekly updates with the directors of each vertical to keep them up to date on the project.
Solution
Variants Bulk Creator
A walkthrough wizard design that allows the users to create each variant options to create a matrix of products.
Product Bulk Editor
A list view of products created from the wizard that can be bulk edited and updated for attributes like price, metadata, shipping information, etc.
Variants Shop
An updated shop front for products that use variants. Allowing the B2B customers to help their consumers purchase the variants with confidence and ease.
Impact
Reduced admin editing time by 15%, enabling them to updating their catalogues quicker
Streamlined shop creation workflows, contributing to 15% faster online shop creation
Increased NPS score for stakeholders using the new experience
Reflections
What Worked Well
User-centred design processes ensured the workflows addressed the needs of all stakeholders
Collaboration and showcasing to senior leadership led to increased satisfaction internally
High touch points with development team to create a seamless handoff cycle
What Could Be Improved
Stability within the product management team as we had multiple product managers through this process leading to extended delivery times