The Essential App
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The Essential App 〰️
The Essential App Store
Redesigning the app to be more exclusive for members and consistent with the website.
Role
Project Lead
Lead Designer
Year
2022 - 2024
Disciplines
UX/UI
Product Strategy
Visual Direction
Graphic Design
Introduction
Data shows more than half of Essential members have the app and half of revenue comes from The Essential app. There is a 98% retention rate with members who have the app so it is crucial that the app storefront is consistent with the website and products are easily discoverable.
In order to improve conversion rate and average order value, we decided to facelift the entire design by re-structuring the navigation, adding in new features, and ensure the layout and flow of the app was consistent with the website.
I was the project lead and in charge of re-designing the app - coordinating and integrating new features, designing the pages, and coordinating with team members on making sure the back end automations were consistent with all changes.
Challenges
The app doesn’t automatically sync with web updates which leads to broken links, forgotten pages, and holes in the collection. How can the app be structured to prevent this?
Can we utilize any additional plugins that works with Tapcart and the website, and install that to improve overall conversion?
How can we design the app to work around limitations with customization and have it be consistent with the website?
How can we design the app to be more exclusive and easier for members to shop on?
The Before
App design that had links directing towards missing pages, needed constant manual maintenance, and didn’t have navigation.
Navigation
The top left button is a search function which could be better used for a drawer or pop up navigation to the aisles.
The search exists in 3 locations: top left, search bar on top of every page, and in the bottom menu. One of them could be replaced with another fuction.
The drops button on the bottom menu leads to a blank page and serves no purpose.
Collection Pages
Collection pages would have forgotten old assets and banners that were uploaded manually.
Links would lead to nowhere when the product or collection was archived
Overall collection pages would not be consistent with the website and collection orders as well as features & functions did not work in tandem.
Metrics
old app design
Conversion Rate
Add to Cart Rate
Average Order Value
Customer Feedback
Asking Essential members what they think of the app and how their experience could be improved.
App Updates Available
A new app design with a new navigation, organized digestible pages, and added features that works in tandem with the website.
01
Improve Navigation & Icons
The navigation and collection pathways are not optimized on the app like it is on the website.
A standard & obvious navigation design similar to improve collection & product discovery.
02
Additional pages to improve discovery
The main aisle page can become an extremely long scroll which hurts discoverability and affects AOV.
Separate aisles into smaller groups so that each page isn’t an endless scroll ensuring that the overall structure still parallels the website.
03
Update custom banners & bi-weekly sweeps
Products come in an out and links and collections break as a result. App needs constant manual maintenance which can become easily overlooked.
The proposed plan: Simply remove any themed or specific custom banners related to a drop or campaign and update on a bi-weekly basis. Update app in sync with website updates.
04
Product Badges & Wishlist
Tapcart is limited in function to what the website can do. Not all features on the website can be available on the app.
Integrate a features on the app that can work cross-functionally with the website so that if the customer can have a seamless experience when shopping on the app or the website.
What Difference Was Made?
Metrics
new app design
Conversion Rate
+1.7% Increase
Add to Cart Rate
+2.85% Increase
Average Order Value
$51 Increase
Conclusion
As a result of redesigning The Essential app, we were able to double the app sessions & activity, improve AOV by $51 and improve conversion rate by 1.7%.
Additionally, we did some quality‑of‑life improvements: created a unified store-aisle system for the app, transitioned to system fonts, and unified navigation bars.
Please note, the UI and animations in this project has been updated to reflect my current standards.