Doubling down on a commitment to consumer hardware and retail, Google set out to make Gstore a global e-commerce destination featuring Made By Google products. Our research showed that doing so meant putting the rest of the world first. I laid out a framework for a discovery phase and project plan to redesign the site ahead of an expansion into key global markets, including user and market research, design studios, workshops, card sorts and multiple rounds of testing. The result was a simplified IA and mobile-first approach, delivering rich engaging customer experiences paired with product education.
Roles: Manager and Independent Contributor
Go-to-Market Manager UX Program Manager
UX Designer and Content Strategist
Skills:
User Centered Discovery, Global Content Strategy, Brand and Website Audit, Ethnography Analysis, UX Research and Persona development
Notable Projects:
John Legend's A Good Night on Gstore for Pixel 2
Project Fi Product Page Redesign
Gstore Financing Product Page Redesign
Smarthome Product Page Launch
Living Room Mini—Global Expansions
Seasonal Promotions and Demand Generation Campaigns
Team:
1x Data Scientist 1x Metrics Analysts
1x Demand Generation Manager
1x SEO Specialist
2x Gstore Product Marketing Managers
4x Retail Product Marketing Managers
2x Content Managers
2x Agency Art Directors
1x Agency Producer
1x Agency Project Manager
1x Creative Director
1x Product (Engineering) Manager
Navigation (before)
Navigation (after)
Background:
GStore evolved into a standalone site out of a nested feature within the Google Play app. Originally it was maintained through a custom CMS, managed by a lone content manager/marketer. As the product line grew so did the site, expanding the main navigation and sitemap without much thought as to the information architecture and user experience. Metrics and reporting indicated that users were not engaging with the site as the bounce rates were through the roof.
Video Content featuring celebrity influencers and a pervasive “buy” button. (after)
Challenges:
While chipping away at a massive backlog of bugs and fixes, I discovered a few key issues and challenges.
Users weren’t finding the product description pages without being deep-linked through a coupon or promotion. When they did, few engaged with the modules on the page.
Nor were they exploring the main navigation to find their products, leaving the majority dependent on the search bar to find their way.
Even then it took most users multiple search attempts and entries before they found what they were looking for.
Our retail product marketing teams presented a broader and more diverse target user than what was reflected in the sales metrics on Gstore. Our products appealed to a user base that didn’t fit the profile of the traditional “Google fanboy” target.
Hypothesis
As a team we needed to reimagine Gstore as a product, the main character on its own stage and not just a supporting role to the Made By Google product line.
Doing so would help motivate the team to participate in a cross-functional user-centered discovery phase and learn more about our users.
This would result in personas and stories that reflected our target users values and culture.
Approach
Armed with data we went about a redesign with a few key goals in mind:
Simplify the IA by removing secondary navigations and limiting the header categories on the main navigation.
Improve taxonomy with more attention to SEO, nomenclature, labeling and naming that reflected the voice and tone of our target users.
Mitigate barriers in the customer journey by removing extra steps in the buy-flow, adding clear CTA’s along with a pervasive “Buy“ button
Leverage the data to create style guides, specs and requirements that support the production of better image quality and content.
Create richer content with more motion, video, and interaction points that reflected the emerging trends and interest to connect with users.
Product pages redesigned and refreshed with new product photography and localized content.
Gstore’s first celebrity influencer campaign. We added new site functionality by rapidly prototyping a responsive animated module.
Collaboration with regional marketing to produce culturally contextual images for the rollout of Pixel 2 in India.
I partnered with Talent, Google PR and brand leads to negotiate rights, production and placement for the behind-the-scenes music video on Gstore.
Produced new creative with updated product photography and added back-end security features and optimized the buy-flow.
Led the update of the Google Project Fi description page to support the roll-out of a product update. We added animated graphics and an interactive tool to reflect the new look and feel of the overall site.
Added browsing features and a real-time savings calculator.
Led the design of an animated hero to demonstrate how Google home products work better together.
Produced seasonal promos and CRM campaigns for Father’s Day.
