Company: Groupe Dynamite
Role: Jr. Product Designer
Duration: Feb 2024- Apr 2024
Tools: Figma
Team Members: Product Manager, Developers
Scope
Improve the functionality and usability of the search feature while maintaining minimal UI changes to align with business goals.
The Challenge
Groupe Dynamite’s retail platform relied on an outdated search feature that struggled to meet users' needs, leading to poor search results, increased bounce rates, and missed conversion opportunities. The business goal was to improve search functionality without overhauling the visual design, ensuring minimal disruption to the established brand identity and user experience.
Problem Statement
The existing search functionality lacked efficiency and personalization. Users had to type full queries each time they searched, leading to frustration and potential drop-offs. Additionally, there was no way for users to revisit their previous searches, which impacted overall user retention and ease of navigation. The images of the suggestions were too small and thus, did not bring value.
Objectives
Improve the search experience to help users find products faster.
Introduce features like search suggestions and history to enhance usability.
Maintain the existing visual structure to comply with business constrains.
Research & Analysis
To kick off the project, I dove into understanding the current pain points and opportunities for improvement:
Heuristic Evaluation
I conducted a detailed analysis of the existing search functionality and identified gaps such as the lack of dynamic feedback and the absence of personalization. For example, the user's search query was not persistent on the Results Page, no Search History was available, no suggestions available once the Search bar is active.
Competitor Benchmarking
I examined search functionalities of 11 competitors in the retail space, including features like real-time suggestions and saved search history. This helped identify best practices that could be adapted within our design constraints.
Ideation & Prototyping
With insights in hand, I began brainstorming solutions. Due to time constrains I started with High-Fidelity prototypes, and modified them accordingly to the feedback I received from the stakeholders and Creative team.
High-Fidelity Prototypes
I created interactive prototypes in Figma to demonstrate how the new features would look and behave. This allowed stakeholders to visualize how new search features like suggestions and history would appear in real-time.
Two different options were presented as initial ideas to stakeholders, emphasizing their minimal impact on the existing design, and the feedback helped to pick one, ensuring alignment with both business and user goals.
Testing & Iteration
To validate the design and functionality post-launch, we ran an A/B test comparing the updated search functionality with the previous version. The test showed a 15% improvement in search-to-product click-through rates in the test group.
The A/B test clearly demonstrated the value of the updated search features:
Search Suggestions
Helped users discover relevant products more efficiently by providing contextual recommendations, reducing cognitive load.
Search History
Improved usability, especially for repeat customers, by allowing them to quickly revisit previous queries without starting from scratch.
Bigger images of suggested items
Improved visibility and increased click rates.
Search engagement increased by 25% in the first month post-launch.
Users reported higher satisfaction due to the convenience of search history, real-time suggestions and clearer UI of the items.
Business stakeholders appreciated the minimal impact on the existing visual design while achieving significant functionality improvements.
Impactful Design Within Constraints
Small changes, like adding search suggestions and history, improved user experience without altering the UI significantly.
Collaboration & Testing
Stakeholder input and iterative testing ensured the solution met both user and business needs.Big Results from Small Changes
Minimal updates boosted search-to-product click-through rates by 15% and reduced time-to-first-click by 20%.
