Preservation & Creation
Lead | Strategy | UX & UI | Branding
For Path-to-Purchase/Shopper Marketing Agencies, account acquisition can take months or even years to obtain. Compounded by a decline in revenue, due to traditional Path-to-Purchase media being replaced by digital solutions. Pointsmith (parent company) was looking for a new digital stream of revenue to call their own.
Pointsmith services a roster of 9 national client accounts with over 30,000 client locations. Pointsmith owns and operates a vast array of printing equipment and warehouse space to facilitate their marketing clients.
The Challenge:
The Approach >
Thoughts on approaching the challenge and a quick look at some of the brand elements.Outline & Educate >
Competitive analysis, recommendations, technical documentation.Brand & UX/UI Design >
A look at the website and custom photo editor.Results >
Wrapping up design sprints, building networks, advertising and dev wrap up.
Process:
1 . The Approach
Create an e-comm business utilizing existing core competencies including printing, and fulfillment services. Preservation & Creation (P&C) offers high-end artistic on-demand printing giving customers the ability to create custom 5x5” photo prints, journal prints, books, and canvases. Users select their desired product, choose from various personalized attributes to create their keepsakes
in the custom online editor, all created in-house. My responsibilities included competitive analysis, creating technical guideline documents, site maps, user flows, wireframes, and managing a team of creatives for our branding, UI, and advertising needs.
2 . Outline & Educate
After defining our product offerings, I performed a competitive analysis to gauge what other on-demand e-commerce printing businesses were offering in terms of product, technology, branding, ux/ui, etcetera. For executive approval, I put together a very high-level technical document outlining and educating
RECOMMENDATIONS, TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION
the executive team on goals we’d be working towards. Upon approval, sprints were mapped out according to our timeline. I began working on user stories while simultaneously working out wireframes for templates and user flows.
3 . Brand & UX/UI Design
A LOOK AT THE WEBSITE, LIVING WATER CAUSE, & CUSTOM PHOTO EDITOR
The website architecture and design were relatively simple and straightforward to complete. The real challenge was working on the UX and flow leading up to and during the use of the multiple products and their editors. Each product required unique elements and rules from a digital and physical production standpoint. We also had to be aware and considerate of keeping the experience familiar and intuitive enough that users did not get confused by the extensive amount of options and variables from item to item. In the end, through countless explorations, wifreframes, and sleepless nights, the design and front
end team succeed in creating an intuitive and cohesive experience. In addition to the e-comm and monetization, we wanted to give back by donating a percentage of each sale to a good cause. Living Water, a nonprofit, provides fresh water for those in need via the creation of water wells/pumps. Prior to the launch of P&C, several team members (myself included) self funded a trip to Guatemala to experience the process, ensure Living Water was the charity we wanted to support, and to help those in need. What an amazing experience.
4 . THE RESULTS
The final sprint of the creative launch was handed-off. Our back-end development team was having issues getting the custom editor to function and communicate with the printing process properly. With the launch date overdue and using a less than optimal product build (custom editor application), the site and application were soft-launched. Major errors and bugs with the customization app led to user project file corruption and product production issues. With startup funds diminishing and little progress on resolving the bugs, Pointsmith finally decided to retire the project.