IBM Marketplace — Janiel Portfolio

When I first joined IBM, I worked as a developer for the IBM Marketplace, where I first learned about UX Design and design best practices for commerce. In 2021 I was recruited by the commerce team, but this time as a UX Designer.

IBM Marketplace

Role: UX Designer
Year: 2021

UX Design, UI Design, User Research

CONTEXT

The checkout team recruited me to enhance the checkout module for IBM Cloud Products, which directly sells to over 10,000 external consumers. Specifically, recommend a new layout to boost the sales of add-ons on Cloud products.

PROBLEM

During the checkout of Cloud products, we need to entice prospective customers to select from an additional bundle discount section/screen.

We have historical data which shows customers tend to purchase “add-ons” months after they’ve purchased their main Cloud product, so we would like to entice them with the idea that since they will buy it in the future, they should purchase it now but with a discount.

GOAL

Come up with a new page layout and design recommendation that compels the customer to sign up for the additional bundle.

USER RESEARCH

I started the project by refamiliarizing myself with the various checkout processes on IBM.org (cloud and different products) and researched the UX of checkout flows when introducing an "Also Brought" or recommendation engine/algorithm. All while maintaining contact with the checkout team via Slack and informing them of my findings.

Through user research, I found that (1) the forced sign-in disrupts the checkout process by only making the user sign in AFTER they've configured their product rather than before or at the end of the process as an option. (2) User's responded better to visuals.

TESTING + RESULTS

I tested several text + layout combinations with the commerce team and a group of users. Ultimately I designed an interstitial page for promotions. Kept the UI simple, consistent, and straight to the point with minimal visuals to draw attention to the deal.