Research • Project Plan • UX Design • UI Design
The Big Picture
RetailMeNot’s mission is to make everyday life more affordable to consumers by making savings meaningful, effortless, and on their terms.
Deal Finder is the company’s browser extension. It searches for the best coupon codes and cashback offers, automatically applying them for shoppers at checkout. Competitors include Honey, Rakuten, WikiBuy, and Shoptagr in addition to a handful of others.
Design Process
User and competitive research
Sketches and wireframes
UI design and specifications
The Challenge
The original name for the browser extension was RetailMeNot Genie ™. It used a completely different branding system than the core RetailMeNot brand. The combination of the Genie name and the unrecognizable branding causes confusion with many customers. Even long-time customers did not know what Genie was or what it had to do with RetailMeNot. The different colors and visual stylings made it feel like something separate altogether. Ultimately, this was hurting the extension because it was not taking advantage of the trust garnered by the well known RetailMeNot brand.
Research
We conducted a national remote research study with 12 participants over two days. Participants were required to have at least one savings extension (the company’s or one of it’s competitors) to take part in the study. I designed the study, and we enlisted a third-party research partner to conduct the moderated usability sessions.
01.
BrandConfusion
The use of different colors and visual styles led to confusion.
02.
NameConfusion
The Genie name baffled participants. They weren’t sure if it was part of RetailMeNot or something different.
03.
BrandLoyalty
Since the name and branding were so different from RetailMeNot, the extension was losing the brand loyalty and trust established by the company’s brand.
Maybe it would be more clear if they just called it RMN, the name of the company.
Problem Statement
How might we improve discoverability and awareness of our browser extension, driving greater installs with limited investment in marketing?
The Solution
I broke down the redesign of the extension and it’s associated pages and experience elements into a phased project plan.
Sketches
I started by drawing some ideas in my sketchbook. I used notes I took from the research to guide me. I also sketched ideas that were generated in a collaborative session with the product manager.
Wireframes
For the landing page, I created wireframes using a modular layout to allow for experiment with the order of content buckets. This will allow us to add new ones or remove existing ones in the future.
Visual Design Development
After sketching and wireframe I explored serveral iterations of the visual design. I held critiques with design team members and reviews with cross-functional partners to get feedback.
The Outcome
My approach to quickly validating and testing small improvements proved successful. Driven by our initial research and data, we were able to build well-formed hypotheses which could then be prioritized based on projected impact.
Deal Finder UI Kit and Components
Deal Finder Landing Page and Layout Grid
Deal Finder Post-Install Page Logged Out
Deal Finder Post-Install Page Logged In
