We consulted with a storied UK high street retailer for 4 months in 2024.

Our team of 7 included content designer (me), UX researcher, product designer, data analyst, a product manager, and dual client managers.

We identified issues preventing conversion and created viable solutions our client could test.

For background information, I read internal research, customer feedback (Medallia), and analytics reports (Adobe Cloud).

I followed that up by navigating the site to relive the online shopper experience.

Situation – Products incorrectly tagged in categories and/or filters

Internal research by client UX researchers revealed problems of being unable to properly search large product ranges.

How I prepared for discovery (June 2024)

• Learnt about M&S’ challenges in online retail.
• In 2016, an expensive two year website redesign proved even costlier after launch, causing an 8% drop in sales within 3 months.
• The Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/) helped me access earlier versions of the website.
• Articles from eConsultancy and Experience UX, assessing the 2016 site let me compare features against the 2024 live site. It proved invaluable during discovery by demonstrating how M&S had lost critical functionality.
• Read contemporary sources of information to understand retailer media and customer perceptions of M&S (TrustPilot, Retail Gazette, Design-week, retail-week).
• Studied the 2021 Baymard M&S case study and its library of ecommerce-specific topics for current best-practices.
• M&S spent years learning from the 2016 experience, rebounding from 2023 onwards with 12 consecutive quarters of profitable growth thanks to the resurgence of its clothing business

What I did during discovery (July – October 2024)

• Reviewed M&S internal research across clothing business together with our user researcher and data analyst
• Used Voice of Customer content from Medallia to investigate and uncover hidden or unmet user needs
• Studied voice and tone guide to provide copy changes to encourage downloading the M&S app
• Assessed latest internal M&S research (2022-23) against live site and analytics to measure effectiveness of changes and inform further experiments
• Dissected product listing pages (PLP), product display pages (PDP) and department landing pages (DLP) to identify usability issues and formulate experiments
• Honed in on lingerie and menswear categories due to past experience at an online retailer and detailed product knowledge
• Identified extensive issues and corrective measures across filters, Offers and Brands.
• Identified under-the-radar products loved by customers and promoted by media/influencers through data analysis using Contentsquare

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How my work impacted M&S

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