This is an abbreviated collection of the work I did at Vistaprint, a company whose vision and mission I genuinely love – to empower micro and small business to look their best. My time of Vistaprint really instilled in me a deep respect for my colleagues of adjacent disciplines and built in me a whole different depth of passion and empathy for users. I am confident you will enjoy the long scroll.
With me as the sole designer, our squad focused on making it easy and fun for our customers to order holiday cards for 2018. Compiling past research with our own, we removed steps upper funnel shortening the path into design mode and left upgrades and options to later in the optimum celebratory moment when users would be able to enhance an already happy experience. This project achieved outstanding performance metrics as well as earnings as well as providing the business with a platform from which to scale and improve configuration flexibility.
In the efforts of fine-tuning our 2018 holiday season, we explored ways to improve on ongoing projects and generate customer excitement by surfacing inspiration earlier in the flow. This was a follow up to the idea of minimizing user’s time and cognitive investment before customers start designing. We achieved this by surfacing relevant and fresh designs, highlighting common and contrasting use cases while also playfully and minimizing pogo-sticking navigation.
After co-leading a series of design sprints, I had the chance to hone in and implement some of the learnings and squash pain points previously hidden inside the signage category. By tweaking the URL tree, slowing down the flow to correct product misunderstandings and succinctly providing comparison points, we were able to improve user success and bring a good “chunk of change” into the category earnings for FY18.
Vistaprint launched the Category Authority (CAT) initiative to solidify its position as a trusted leader in diverse product categories through strategic design and user-focused insights.
I co-led a series of design sprints within this effort, exploring how clothing customization, assortment, and the small business market function within a large enterprise compared to a niche company. We analyzed assortment levels, credibility, shopping methods, printing technologies, visual product communication, video, and brand voice, conducting both online and in-person user research with mock-ups and product touch-and-feel preference tests.
Starting with a pilot program in apparel, we expanded to major categories like signage, invitations, business cards, and marketing materials. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including photography, design experience, and pricing, we documented insights on an internal site and shared them with stakeholders—some were implemented immediately, while others were backlogged during the core site’s transition to a new platform.
During a Business Card Upgrade project that spotlighted our Squad within the organization (I should really write about that one), I faced tight time constraints. Leveraging the wealth of information from the CAT project mentioned earlier, I decided to take matters into my own hands and conduct an impromptu photography session to showcase paper and printing features in detail. Using the company’s templates, I designed 40 unique business cards, had them printed, and roamed the office with a tabletop lens, my trusty Canon 6D, and a nifty-fifty lens (IYKYK).
The results weren’t technically flawless, but they were stunning and effectively highlighted the nuances of various papers and finishes, backing up our upsell figures in conjunction to other aspects of the project.
My time at Vistaprint was my first UI/UX job at a sizable company, and it was an extremely productive and memorable experience. Great output and lots of friends were made there.
Below is a collection of diverse projects spanning UI, UX, and UXR, unearthed from sifting through my old stash of hard drives:
I hope to have succeeded in giving you a peek at the depth of work I was a part of at Vistaprint.
It’s a privilege to hold your attention thus far
