Photobox :
Communicating Through Design
Overall
Photobox is a company that creates physical products with customers’ photos on them; it has many brands across Europe. At Photobox, the focus was on improving and delivering existing products. I melded user research with usability testing to help grow the design work from a visual improvement of the Photobox app to a top-level strategic approach to how Photobox worked. We achieved multiple measurable improvements.
Problem
The initial problem was that the development of the mobile phone app had been outsourced and driven by multiple product managers, each with a delivery focus. The resulting app was large to download, challenging to learn and slow to use. I was brought in to lead the improvement of this app and helped find ways to improve sales through the app.
Through exploring the Apps we found the biggest amount of issues in the checkout which were the same as the desktop solutions.
The apps had evolved with multiple studios for different products each created separately leading to inconsistencies.
Mapping out the apps brought up obvious inconsistencies and issues
Engaging
Photbox ran small teams, and our developers were local, so it was relatively easy to tap into the agile way the team worked and set up a good rhythm. I ran workshops with the product team to understand the app’s key needs and find some candidates for what to tackle first. I also used other designers to critique the design and feed it into the improved visual language. We also started running usability sessions to uncover quick wins, which led to some great insights.
The primary engagement with the company was done through delivery. We kept discovery light and iterated using prototypes, Axure for high-fidelity text field interactions, and other tools for high-fidelity app interactions. We used design to engage people in the organisation and allow us to test the design before building. Rapid iteration of delivery also allowed us to measure how effective our changes were.
We iterated on this but only some things I had envisioned could be fitted within the technical time available!
For the new checkout, I created a working prototype using Axure to show how the improvements worked
I collaborated with the desktop teams on studio solutions while working on the apps
I collaborated with the desktop teams on studio solutions while working on the apps
As we worked though the checkout we kept a live board where people could see the progress and add notes
For the new app home page we ideated with product and the desktop design team
When designing the new studios for different products I created a board to discuss ideas and show potential solutions
Discovery
Internally, there was a set of perceived wisdom about how users used Photobox. While the areas we needed to tackle had been identified, it was only when we started to engage more with users that we realised the why behind the analytics. Beginning with the unification of the design for the Photobox App, we planned out an approach to the app that overflowed into the design of the whole Photobox experience. For example, we knew from our analytics that the checkout(s) in the Android/iOS apps were problematic, and by adding user research at the start of each Usability Session, we discovered that many aspects of the existing design put people off. This led to a new unification project for the checkout(s) across the App and online experience.
Front loading Usability Testing with User Research has many benefits. For example, It helps users get into the mode of using an application by bringing up recent tasks. We synched between teams to have consistent questions to build an overall picture of uses.
We ran multiple usability sessions, ensuring findings were easy to read and accessible
Alongside our testing, we ran research that led to a more detailed understanding of what the user did, when, and why
From our research, we were able to build up archetypal scenarios
I simplified our research into one wildly used diagram to show the opportunities open to Photobox
As well use the user journey I worked with the engineers to map out the business logic of hte checkout
When working on the app we carefully worked out which elements we would deliver first which shaped the design work
Delivery
We balanced the rapid iterative design that included tactical changes with the ongoing strategic findings that fed into the overall Photobox approach. The roadmap we created was informed by the ongoing user research for prioritisation and the usability testing for designing new experiments to make different-sized tickets. In that way, the team could achieve a new constant velocity by having different-sized tasks. It also meant we had incremental changes going live that we could A/B test or monitor. We also used smaller markets to test releases before adding more larger markets. This allowed us to improve our certainty and reduce risk.
Many visual changes had negligible effects. I could demonstrate the power of UX by making minor changes in the App or Checkout flow, which led to measurable improvements in conversion. This was the advantage of working in an eCommerce environment.
The process could have been smoother. For example, when I returned from holiday at one point, I realised that the intended design/flow of one major part of the app had been changed to something that made more sense to the engineers. We worked out that despite clear documentation, the design needed to include more of the ‘why’ from the user research and involve more engineers. This change led to more engineer-led ideas and improved our process.
The UI for the retro prints went through several iterations as we went from concept to what would work technically and for users.
This is an example of the working file for app we used for prototypes and delivery
Selecting images was a big challange we solved across all studios in the app
This is the overall flow for the app I created to unify all apsects of the experience
The new unversal checkout was design to be cleaner, simpler and faster for users
We created a pattern library for the checkout to allow for quick reskinning and future iterations
Results
The work I did at Photobox:
Increased conversion by up to 1% through the unification of the checkout alone.
Improved the usability and engagement of the iOS and Android apps.
Created unified design language that made white labelling quicker and more flexible.
Unifying our User Research approach helped the company better understand and adapt to user needs.
Learning
A few things I learnt.
Engaging stakeholders is best done through working through the design process. More show, less tell.
Front-loading usability testing with user research has many benefits.
Prototyping is vital; no one tool suits all situations.
It’s vital to balance the small with the large and inform each other.
Ensure that engineering knows the why of any design to empathise with a solution.
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