Context
PerkSpot is a platform (web and mobile) that offers exclusive discounts and perks to employees of partner companies (Groupon, but more personal).
This case study outlines a redesign that improved user engagement and satisfaction. The changes included easier navigation, an advanced search functionality, personalized recommendations, and a more efficient redemption and check-out process.
These updates led to increased user engagement and higher redemption rates, showcasing the success of user-centric design and iterative improvements.
This was all accomplished alongside a continually updated design system, while also building the digital asset infrastructure, conducting QA testing, and making iterative improvements that all are in complicate w WCAG guidelines.
My Roles
Customer insight & ideation – Collaborated with product managers to uncover user insights and transform concepts into actionable features that effectively addressed user pain points.
Planning & scope definition – Partnered with the product manager to establish requirements, prioritize features, and define the MVP objectives.
Leadership – Delivered presentations to stakeholders at PerkSpot to secure buy-in and coordinated with senior management to get essential project resources.
Experience strategy & vision – Crafted scenarios and low-fidelity prototypes to articulate the solution's vision, ensuring team alignment with the project goals.
Design execution & validation – Produced high-fidelity designs, prototypes, and detailed design specifications.
Implementation – Worked with a development team and contributed directly to QA testing, ensuring the successful realization of my designs.
Problem Definition
PerkSpot aimed to enhance user engagement and satisfaction on its platform by providing employees of partner companies with exclusive discounts
However, the platform faced challenges such as complex navigation, limited personalization, limited search functionality and a cumbersome redemption process, which impacted user experience and adoption rates.
Design Process
To address these challenges, PerkSpot undertook a redesign focused on the following:
1. Customer Service Insights: Reviewed insights generated previously from client-customer interaction.
2. Heuristic Analysis: Assessed the current PerkSpot platform and figured out what could be improved.
3. Affinity Diagram: Cluster together features based off out client and product management feedback to identify key areas that had the highest impact.
4. Competitive Analysis: Learn what other products have done to solve similar problems.
5. Lo-fi/Hi-fi Prototype + Critique and QA: Explore diverse ideas that could solve the problem, get feedback from stakeholders, product management, and engineering and finally QA the designs before sign off and launch.
Workflow
With the Principal UX Designer at PerkSpot, we established a robust workflow that governs the design and development of user-facing products.
This well defined process ensures that the UX team are actively involved in each stage of the product design cycle, starting from initial concept to the final deployment.
By implementing this workflow, future (and current) UX Designers have the opportunity to contribute their expertise throughout the entire process.
Additionally, I worked on a straightforward checklist that is utilized by product managers, developers, and QA engineers. This checklist serves as a valuable tool to ensure that all user-facing features we release adhere to PerkSpot's designated Design and Accessibility standards. This helps maintain consistency and accessibility across our products, enhancing the overall user experience.
The PerkSpot Discount Portal
The Discount Portal, which is the main web product of PerkSpot, is highly popular among millions of active users across numerous employers nationwide. My role involved overseeing the design and production of all user-facing features, collaborating with stakeholders, product managers, and developers.
I was responsible for helping maintain and updating the design system that served as the foundation for the website, establishing the digital asset infrastructure for managing creative content, and even developing a custom icon set that is used throughout the site.
The videos provided below offer a glimpse into the extensive range of features I have researched, designed, and successfully implemented during my time at PerkSpot.
Notably, the website is designed to be mobile-responsive and prioritizes compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.
The PerkSpot Search Feature
The Search functionality, which is arguably the backbone of PerkSpot, is highly popular among millions of active users across numerous employers nationwide. My role involved doing competitive analysis, bringing new design iterations and concepts to product managers and stakeholders, working with engineering while simultaneously doing QA, and finally, overseeing the rollout.
Simply put, the old search was outdated. Reasons being:
- Lacked auto-suggestions or auto-complete
- Poor relevancy
- Limited filtering
- Basic presentation
- Case-sensitivity or exact matches required.
This kind of search experience often felt clunky and fails to meet the expectations of modern users…all while carrying to risk of losing users.
What I noticed:
- Provided Auto suggestions + auto complete
- Displayed relevant results
- Filtering options galore
- Visually appealing results with brand names, logos, product images, prices
- Even if you misspelled your search, it would autocorrect automatically and display correct results
- User’s search entry remained fixed and saved
DEAD END?
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
SCRATCH WORK
The PerkSpot Design System
The PerkSpot Design System is a comprehensive collection of styles, components, design patterns, tools, and best practices specifically crafted to streamline product design processes at PerkSpot. This Design System is implemented as a UI Kit within Figma, providing a resource for designers.
Importantly, the Design System is seamlessly integrated into every PerkSpot technology product, guaranteeing a 1:1 analog representation. This integration ensures that prototypes are constructed using reusable components and standardized design patterns, resulting in efficient development of consistent and accessible products.
“My Favorites” Figma Prototype
PerkSpot's "My Favorites" feature prototypes were efficiently developed in Figma using the PerkSpot Design System UI Kit. These prototypes outline various features and serve as a reference for developers during implementation.
Leveraging the UI Kit ensures swift creation for both the responsive PerkSpot Discount Portal and the Mobile App. Consistent use of the Design System across endpoints enables reuse of design patterns, enhancing consistency and streamlining the design and development process.
The PerkSpot Marketing Site
I contributed as a secondary designer to the refresh of the PerkSpot Marketing Site, which was launched in the summer of 2022. My role involved supporting the primary designer with visual design, creative input, UX design, and WordPress development throughout the project.
Results
The redesigned PerkSpot platform led to increased user engagement, higher redemption rates, and improved overall satisfaction among employees accessing perks through the platform.
“I literally love when PerkSpot sends me emails. It has THOUSANDS of ways to help me save money and being a single mother of 3, you don’t know how much this helps me and my family!!”
Senica W
Reflection + Outcome
Reflection: The success of the PerkSpot redesign underscores the importance of user-centric design, iterative prototyping, and
continuous improvement in creating a compelling user experience.
Outcome: By implementing these proposed enhancements, PerkSpot aims to enhance user satisfaction, increase engagement, and ultimately drive higher adoption and retention rates among both employees and partner companies.