2014-2015
Costco Microsite Redesign
Project
Costco Wholesale has 206 locations generating $16 billion in annual sales. In 2015, Costco decided to exclusively partner with Intermedia as their sole business phone services provider. This new partnership involved redesigning and co-branding the Costco Business Phones website and envisioning how the digital experience would transfer to in-store. With a 9 month timeline we focused first on delivering a digital experience that would stand independent yet enhance the in-store experience in a more effective and meaningful way.
Goal
Identified 3 goals for the digital phase of this project — increase SEO rankings, increase lead generation, and improve overall user experience.
Involvement. UX Design
The Approach.
Our lack of domain knowledge regarding in-store phone sales meant we needed to understand the nature of the sale of Costco products and services thoroughly and quickly. To access our prospective users, we conducted in-store evaluations. This allowed us to quickly understand how they interacted with various products while in-store. Because many existing purchases happened online the team also reviewed existing quantitative data and analytics. Using Stormboard the digital team synthesized the information gathered to help guide us through the design process.
I led a strategy workshop to align on goals, audit existing content and structure and prioritized project tasks. The initial strategy included a complete rework of the site content, structure, and design. Near the start of the project there was a large shift in strategy, to help realign the team I created a site map and sketched the key page elements needed to help accomplish our goal. These sketches were refined, annotated and shared with the broader team for final feedback.
Wireframes v 1.
I opted to sketch wireframes for this project because it was the quickest way to get ideas on paper. Due to the changes in content strategy we needed to bring structure to the design to help move the project forward. Once the wireframes were reviewed I moved on to develop detailed wireframes.
Wireframes v2
For version two of the wireframes I inserted key copy elements to help with user testing and to identify gaps in the existing content strategy. V2 wireframes were passed to our SEO agency for final copy drafts and to the visual design team for mockups.