Shopify merchants often group together multiple products into a single offering that can be bought together, in one ‘Add to cart’ click; hese are called bundles. These items are distinct, event when grouped together, and often sold at reduced prices to increase the appeal and value to customers.
Merchants use bundles as a strategy to move inventory in a more efficient manner. Bundles for Shopify Fulfilment Network (SFN) is a feature created to facilitate inventory management and subscriptions for customers making bundles orders.
This project was focused on how a merchant would view bundles ordered by a customer in their order details pages, and how the inventory would display showing subscriptions and bundle items.
Due to the high level of overlap involved with a section such as orders, I needed to align with multiple teams and stakeholders in order to ensure that I followed the guidelines already in place to design a solution.
The following statements were used as a guide to narrow down the concept:
I collaborated with my mentor Shanique Shields, and with senior product designer Estelle Liu, as we created a scenario showing how items in budles work for merchants in the orders details page on web and mobile through SFN.
I outlined how a bundle is handled through the backend and how its created within SFN. I took into account the project’s current state, while also considering all future objectives for the project to understand it correctly before designing possible solutions,.
Once the scenario was created, I mapped out the current flow for viewing bundles and subscriptions in the order details pages. The current state employed a modal sheet, nested at the bottom of the page with menu options.
This design was to mimic what Shopify's Android app currently used, however the iOS version needed to be redesigned, and I began by redesigning the modal sheet, and the information it presented, and its the animation it should have.
While modal sheet are an effective option for presenting detailed information, I believed that an action sheet (which would follow Apple's HIG's) could prove to be a better solution.
Since the redesign for this flow was focused around iOS, I contrasted modal sheets and action sheets, giving each of them the same flow to decide on a solution. I crafted some low fidelity wireframes and sketched out the layout for both options to see the benefits and drawbacks of each.
I presented my proposals to my internship mentor, we reviewed them and prepared them for me to present at a UX Review presentation for manager feedback.
As I researched the Orders team's projects and design files, I discovered that the subscriptions team provided a badge and description on items that belonged to a subscription order.
To ensure that I was aligning with other stakeholders and teams since the Orders team was the owner of all order pages, I also set up meetings with the designers that had worked on the appropriate sections of the project that overlapped for feedback.
Once I had received manager approval for the action sheets proposal, the final step was to present a high-fidelity user flow with the approved app badges in the order details page.
I set up a final review meeting with the UX managers, engineering and the Orders and Subscriptions teams for alignment and approval.
With the approval from engineering, UX managers and all other teams whose work overlapped with mine, I provided my final solution: An improved user flow for users to view bundles and subscriptions through the order details page, and manage inventory and product details for iOS and Android.
This internship provided me the opportunity to be part of a complex project and collaborate with senior designers in its final stages. I was trusted with sections of the project that needed fine-tuning and was trusted with responsibilities to produce results that would lead to them being built and published.
The valuable experience and lessons I learned with working alongside my mentor have helped me improve my design, presentation and multitasking skills, and further develop my communication and listening abilities with my extended team and managers.
Designing for an important company with rapidly moving projects also forces you to show your resourcefulness, discover skills you may not have realized you needed or had, and finally, trusting in yourself and your abilities.
Trusting your instincts is just as important as asking questions whenever you need to. Align often and collaborate with colleagues and other teams in order to craft the best solution. The only wrong question is the one you don't ask, be a constant learner and listener, and don't be afraid to show what you bring to the table. Be brave, be bold, trust yourself.
