Madewell, Denim Fit Quiz

Research, Strategy & Design Lead — Desktop & Mobile Web

Project Background

Madewell aims to be the market leader in premium, quality denim at an affordable price.

Denim is the top growth category for new customers. After analyzing customer feedback we found new customers feel overwhelmed by the large online assortment and don’t know where to begin — which is why they tend to make their first purchase in-store. Our strategy was to design an online fit quiz experience that would help narrow down Madewell’s many different fits, washes, rises and styles and help customers find what they’re looking for.

Goals

+ Grow new customer business via direct (discover denim online vs in-store).

+ Increase denim purchase rate & conversion rate.

+ Increase visibility of extended sizing assortment (petite, curvy, tall & plus) as these styles (aside from curvy) are not sold in stores.

+ Assist loyal repeat customers in discovering new denim trends and styles.

My Role

I led research, strategy and design for this project. I led strategic decisions from research, design and creative shoot direction to final QA and launch.

Research Scope:

+ A 12-minute online survey was conducted among 600 women sourced from an external sample source (i.e., customers and non-customers)

+ Remote unmoderated usability testing of current site and first round designs via Userzoom — 30 participants (split between desktop & mobile)

+ Focus group of 6 participants

+ Competitive / comparative landscape review

Results & KPIs

+ Conversion rate: 7.10% vs 2.79% total site

+ Denim Purchase rate: 79% vs 27% total site

+ New customer order rate: 33% vs 23% total site

+ 42K additional product views

+ Add to bag

+ Estimated annualized demand +700-800K

Competitive Landscape

Usability Testing Themes

I ran remote unmoderated usability testing sessions of the first round designs (already in production) and iterated based on the themes and feedback below to launch a 2.0 version of the quiz.

Body Type

The first-round designs had customers select their body shape to be matched with either a standard or curvy fit. After focus group & usability testing we found that customers wanted a wider breadth of options. Madewell’s curvy fit is based on hip to waist proportions so I reworked the focus and objective of the question to reflect that.

Fit & Style

My original design had “style” and “leg shapes” (denim fit) split into two questions but we found that customers felt limited by the results they were getting and that “style” is subjective — they were more interested in direct terms like “wide leg” “tapered” “skinny” etc. I combined both questions into one and defined fit & style.

Result Matching

Originally the logic of the quiz was built to separate results into “perfect match” “great match” and “good match”, but we found that customers who were only seeing “good” matches did not have proper context and were confused as to why their results were a bit off. To solve this, the next round of designs removed the ranking system completely and sorted results by “leg shape” (wide leg, skinny, etc.) with category links to shop more in that style driving conversion and add to cart rates.

Inclusive Imagery

Despite our best efforts to include inclusive imagery throughout the quiz, a few pages were called out by customers as problematic. Solution was to include personalized imagery and build logic to show relevant imagery as soon as we identify a customer as “standard” “petite” “plus” or “curvy”.

Sizing Personalization

Customers requested that the size and fit information they entered into the denim fit quiz apply to the rest of their site browsing experience. Solution was to build experiences tying in their selections into their account settings and working on incorporating a “my size” feature site-wide.

Creative Direction

Working with the brand creative and marketing team, I helped define the visual photography look & feel of the quiz — with a focus on models in a range of sizes.