02
UX Design, UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing
Thread
Background
Thread was a clothing discovery service and personalized shop designed to make dressing well effortless. It was founded in 2012 by three friends who found shopping overwhelming due to the abundance of choices and the difficulty in finding styles that suited them.
Thread combined the expertise of stylists with smart AI to offer a more personalised shopping experience. It provided tailored outfit ideas, style advice, and a curated shop featuring over 1,000 of the world’s top brands, all in one place.
In early 2021, Thread was launched for womenswear and it was an immediate runaway success.
The Challenge
I joined Thread as a Principal Product Designer in August 2021. My role was oversee all of the the Product Design for the entire business. I was deployed specifically to the discovery pod. The aim of the discovery pod was seek opportunities in terms of optimising the womenswear experience.
All of a sudden Thread had a lot more traffic but users were leaving the homepage. The business goal was simple how can we improve engagement and growth on the home page for Womenswear users?
The Approach
The discovery pod consisted of a Product Owner, a Developer, a Stylist and myself initially. As a team we wanted to understand the user needs better. We surveyed a panel of regular user and we asked them what sort of content would they like to see on their homepage. The survey result told us they were craving more style tips on the following topics.
How to dress to suit their body shape
How to dress to suit their appearance
The best items for the season
How to pair colours together
How to pair categories together
How to create a Capsule Wardrobe
User Testing
After identifying the desired user content, I needed to determine the most effective way to deliver it. We rigorously tested various design patterns with users. It quickly became clear that even the most flawless designs would fail if the copy was off or the styling advice was incorrect. Since the content had to be personalised style tips for women, each test needed to be tailored to the individual user.
Exploration
After identifying the desired user content, I needed to determine the most effective way to deliver it. We rigorously tested various design patterns with users. It quickly became clear that even the most flawless designs would fail if the copy was off or the styling advice was incorrect. Since the content had to be personalised style tips for women, each test needed to be tailored to the individual user.
The Result
We shipped and iterated after two rounds of testing with prototypes.
Sales up by 13% from the homepage
We unlocked a new way of increasing revenue and engagement
We realised the power of having a cross functional team
95 % of user stated that they wanted more features like this
