How we optimised the core experience to engage with online-first shoppers in new and unique ways.

I joined Zilch as its first designer in early 2020. There were 16 of us who worked in the company at the time. We were passionate; our brand had a logo, a vague idea of a mission, 1000 active users and a janky WordPress site that left a lot of room for improvement.

The business focuses on a direct relationship with the consumer rather than through retail stores, so our company's success or failure rested on creating a solid core experience that could convert to sales.

My Role and responsibilities

As the first designer at Zilch, my main priority throughout my time there was the design of the new product experience for mobile web and desktop as well as the web design of Zilch’s website.

The Challenge

Nowadays, the shopping journey often begins online or via social media. Consumers are now browsing and discovering products in new ways, across multiple channels, engaging with brands they love on social media and researching new products via mobile apps.

Zilch wants to strengthen their direct relationship with the consumers by changing their business modal from waiting list to free registration. That will allow consumers to experience the immediate benefit of using the product offering. The problem is that generally, people are not willing to sign up until they see value in doing so.

The business chose to focus on the direct relationship with the customer (D2C), rather than through retail stores so all of the success or failure of our business rested on creating a strong core experience that could convert to sales.

I teamed up with the creative designer to create a consistent E2E customer experience. We listed out the current product specs, slapped on a handful of product renders, went through endless iterations, and finally pushed go for the first MVP after eight weeks.

The initial launch went well and we’ve seen a steady increase of +5000 signups after launch. However, we quickly faced our next problem: The Pandemic

We launched our newly design product in the beginning of 2020 and a couple of month later Covid19 happened. At this time, we had no idea what impact this might have on people’s financial decisions nor the impact for our core business. Zilch saw a rise in usage during the pandemic, especially when access to physical retail was limited. Due to high demand, the business expanded their service offerings to cater to in-store purchases in the beginning of 2021. Zilch anywhere was born,

But with the increase of consumer’s signing up to our product we’ve faced a new challenge of creating a refund automation focussing on enabling partial refunds

Since Zilch represented an entirely fresh approach to the product, it was also an opportunity to establish some newer design patterns that we could then roll-out to the rest of the app over time.

To maintain consistency and ensure efficient design to dev handover, I developed a modular design system based on reusable components and their states, such as cards, forms, and controls. Every component can be rearranged and combined with others while maintaining design consistency and recognisable UI patterns for the user.

Last but not least …

In preparation for the Zilch product launch we knew we were going to need a website site for interested consumers to learn more and sign up from. The goal of the page was to educate potential partners about steady climbing user base, social proof, the benefits we offer, and ultimately get them excited so they want to sign up. In conjunction with the incredibly talented engineering team we decided to design a simplified version to not paralysis people with too much choice.