Banana Republic App
Once we’d successfully handed off BR Home and the Banana Republic Apparel website, the Fairwinds team was asked to continue with a redesign of their apparel app. The goal was to seamlessly weave storytelling into the shopping experience, fostering deeper engagement. The challenge was to take a chaotic and distracting UI and transform it into a modern, elegant and user friendly experience that elevated the luxury feel of the brand.
My Role
• User Research, wireframing, prototyping, UI design
• Built and maintained a design system
• Visual design, brand design
The Result
Increased conversions, decreased returned items, increased user engagement and brand loyalty, transition to a more refined and luxury brand identity to support brand initiatives
User Analysis
We asked our users to define the most important issues they had with the app. We analyzed data to see where these problem areas arose:
1. Unclear user journey based on different user personas and goals (browsing vs. looking for specific item)
2. Banana Republic’s sizing is inconsistent and there isn’t trustworthy or helpful information to inform size making decisions.
3. Lack of advanced features like personalized content, try it on features, etc.
Homepage
We focused on optimizing two different user journeys
Customers looking for inspiration, style guidance, or simply browsing to see what’s new
Create engaging, dynamic content that keeps them browsing, without hiding CTAs or muddying with too much marketing messaging
Customers looking for a specific item
Create a clear path to the item they’re searching for, helpful product information to facilitate a quick and confident purchase, decrease return rates
Working in sprints with my team at Fairwinds, I began by mapping the user journey and creating rough wireframes.
I progressed to high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes.
I used Banana Republic’s newest campaign and product photography, but took the imagery in a new direction by cropping in tightly on certain details. I paired that with minimalist UI, allowing the products to take center stage.
Banana Republic’s homepage is typically designed like most major eCommerce companies - by committee, with many of the major decisions dictated up to the last minute by the marketing team, not the designers. We knew that we couldn’t change BR’s internal process significantly, so I redesigned Banana Republic’s existing homepage components for a fresh, minimal look that their marketing team could still easily adapt through each launch.
My goal was to allow them to meet their varied needs, while placing some ground rules for overall cohesion and hierarchy.
Each component had to be flexible with the ability to choose between various CTA styles, hidden or visible product details, and adaptable to header styles and copy lengths. I made each component responsive across breakpoints.
I laid out several examples of how the components could best be used, and provided detailed annotations.
Product Detail Page
Our goal on PDP was to increase personalized content and address sizing issues. We wanted to create merchandizing opportunities with a new ‘Shop The Look’ section. Most importantly, the goal was to decrease friction with our ‘Buy Box’ or item selector, and increase conversion.
Design System
Homepage Components