In 2016, I led the design team for the new website for pioneering toy brand Melissa & Doug. While the primary driver for the redesign was re-platforming on the SalesForce Commerce Cloud (nee Demandware) platform to provide modern marketing and merchandising capabilities, as designers, we had an obligation to ensure that the brand’s approach to play and childhood came through on the new website.
As designers, we had an obligation to ensure that the brand’s approach to play and childhood came through on the new website.
Research
Upper-funnel information architecture encouraged discovery of toys through multiple approaches. Interaction design touches ensured that the brand’s playful nature came through even on small screens and efficiency-oriented user flows.
Storytelling
I led the design team through the discovery and design processes. Discovery deliverables like a robust feature value matrix organized the conversation around the Demandware platform and key customizations that drove return on investment.
Conversion
The resulting digital flagship store successfully translated the brand’s unique voice online and more than doubled their direct e-commerce revenue in their first year.
Because the Melissa & Doug brand is well-distributed in toy stores around the United States, we positioned the online flagship store as more of a brand statement than a purely conversion-driven site.
The home page featured a range of merchandising techniques that allowed them to position their products in novel ways while utilizing SalesForce’s Einstein automated product recommendations.
In e-commerce, most information architecture decisions are related to the question “how do I find the products that matter to me.” For Melissa & Doug, I was particularly proud of the creative ways we were able to answer that question.
Based on our consumer research, we offered users the ability to navigate their product catalog by a number of facets, including age, price, room, and theme.
There is some iconography that is a conventional part of every user interface. For Melissa & Doug, we were able to make the effort to make this iconography both unique to the brand and completely usable.