HIVE

Overview

I was originally hired by Hive for a 6-month contract (eventually extended 3 times) in order to work on the Hive website.

Main objective was to improve the overall UI and UX. I led the team, managing 3 other designers. We redesigned the website shortly after I joined. The website grew internationally during my time at Hive, we launched in 5 different countries including USA, Canada, France, Italy, Ireland.

Research

We worked on competitive analysis and website architecture. Looking at website such as Nest, Apple, Arlo etc. The Smart Home technology industry was growing fast and it was necessary to stand out from the crowd in order to compete!

We gathered as much information as possible, using Hive existing personas, studies and focus group that the Marketing and CX team had worked on. We interviewed existing customers on the phone and invited them in the office. Initially we wanted to test the existing website to see which areas needed improvement and which were pain points. We also investigate was sort of syntax was most comprensive, We run some closed card sorting exercise to better understand how our customers perceived our products, menu structure. labelling and flow.

Wireframes

Once we've discussed the paper UX sketches i designed wireframes using Sketch. One of the new website features was Build Your Own, where users could create their bundle of product and would decide if paying them one-ff with a discount or in monthly instalments.  View Build Your Own InVision wireframe prototype.

High fidelity UI designs

Once I had enough info I started working on the visuals using Sketch.

UI components

Considering Hive Website grew hugely since I started working with them (we reached 1 million users and launched in 5 different countries) it became increasingly difficult to manage each Product customisations, up-sells and different pricing and ways of paying for each country. I decided to adapt a more modular, Atomic Design approach and use components which the Dev Team could add to each Product page. View InVision Desktop and Mobile components prototype and examples of how they have been implemented.

Management

I managed Hivehome.com website's design team (Product designer, Digital designer, UX researcher). On a regular basis I had to attend meetings with Head of Web, Brand, Marketing and various Stakeholders. Besides designing experiences, I also had to gather requirements and eventually dealing with Engineers and QA Team, making sure they followed our design guidelines.