Elfa Design Tools
UX Strategy | Research | UX/UI Design
Developed more than eight years ago, the original Elfa Design Tools faced numerous challenges, primarily stemming from their outdated code and limited functionalities. The inability to seamlessly integrate new products and inaccurately represented illustrations led to user confusion and a noticeable decline in sales. Moreover, the tools’ sole accessibility through desktop platforms excluded over 50% of Container Store online customers, resulting in substantial missed sales opportunities.
- The Container Store
- E-Commerce
- Lead UX Designer
- UX Strategy & Design
Based on analytics data revealing high user interaction but low conversion rates, I initiated the project by conducting customer interviews and usability testing to pinpoint the root cause. Subsequently, I performed a comprehensive competitive analysis and developed journey maps to identify potential areas for improvement.
Through these efforts, we identified key factors contributing to the low conversion rates:
- Users lacked confidence that they were accurately entering their space dimensions.
- Limited customization options left users dissatisfied.
- The illustration style of the closet designs hindered users’ ability to visualize their space effectively.
Collaborating with the Product Owner and Lead Developer, we mapped out the key user stories to align our teams on the capabilities that would be included for launch. Including all of our teams ensured that we were creating value for the users and business that was feasible with the technology and time that we had.
Following the capabilities decided on for MVP, my team began sketching and planning the user’s journey from entering dimensions to designing and purchasing their custom solution.
My team and I iterated on the screens through low fidelity wireframes. Using these to gain approval from the Product and Development teams before creating high-fidelity designs.
The Impact
The new experience had a significant impact on metrics for the site as well as the future roadmap for the in-store employee tools.
The new experience increased overall engagement with the design tools on the site and opened up the audience by 50% by including mobile devices.
By creating realistic renderings and providing the flexibility that users wanted, the new experience increased conversion on custom designs.
The new design tool created patterns that were used for a new closet design tool for employees. This new design system and reusable code significantly decreased the time to develop the second tool.
Because of the ease of use, employees were able to easily use the new online design tool to help visualize simple custom closet solutions with customers. Later the design patterns decreased training time for the new employee tool as well.
