Registration Redesign
Client: Grainger
Project Type: UX Design
Skills: Agile development, brainstorming, collaboration, competitive analysis, design specifications, heuristic evaluation, interaction notes, mockups, project management, and wireframing
What and Why
Grainger.com is undergoing a modernization and adaptive redesign to increase ease of use for customers. One of the current areas of focus was the Registration experience. The pandemic caused some shifting of priorities so development was pushed back a few times. This gave us a lot of time to work on designs ahead of the development.
Problem
Since it is a B2B website, registering an account on Grainger.com is a much more complex and involved process than it is on a typical retail site. Unfortunately, the complexity caused some issues with abandonment. One of the goals of the redesign was to simplify as much as possible and to make it easier for customers to finish the registration process.
Original State
Approach
Competitive Analysis
The first thing I did was a heuristic evaluation of the current Registration process to understand the existing usability issues. I then compared it to the experiences of direct and indirect competitors. Based on this analysis, I came up with some initial recommendations for improvement.
Process Flow
I also created a flow chart of the different paths through, and the necessary decision points of, the current Registration process. This helped me understand the complexity and where the process could be simplified.
Wireframes
I created wireframes of both a single-page registration form and an accordion version and reviewed these with the UX Lead.
Axure Mockups
After a few rounds of feedback and updates with the Lead, I began regular reviews with the Product Manager, Business Analyst, Engineering Development Program Analyst, and Visual Designer and iterated based on their feedback until the design was finalized. I then updated the wireframes as new stories were added to the backlog while waiting for development to begin.
Struggles and Successes
Development work had a delayed start and some shifting priorities caused a change in strategy. The design was updated in phases, meaning more incremental improvements would need to be released before the back-end modernization work could begin. There were still significant gains for users, though, despite the longer timeline.
Outcome
Final Designs
