UX Case Study: Melaleuca Inc. — The Wellness Company
The five pillars of success as a UX Designer in e-commerce.
To respect and protect the internal processes and procedures at Melaleuca Inc., and to comply with non-disclosure agreements, this case study will not focus on sensitive company and customer data or specific project details.
My role
Role: UX Designer & Lead User Experience Researcher
Industry: Global e-commerce, shopping, retail, health & wellness
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States
Duration: 2019 ~ Present
Key accomplishments
Lead the UX research program
Create, plan, and execute Melaleuca’s web marketing UX research strategy. This involves everything from the initial discovery & ideation phases, competitive analysis, coordination, recruiting, and scheduling participants, conducting moderated usability interview sessions, analyzing data, and reporting findings across the organization.
Overhaul of the internal CMS
Since 1985, Melaleuca continues to stand by its mission:
“To enhance the lives of those we touch by helping people reach their goals.”
This global endeavor, to enhance the lives of those around the world, is a fun, innovative, and challenging environment for a user experience designer to thrive in and meet the daily challenges of the consumer.
Melaleuca is the largest online wellness shopping club in North America. They are both the manufacturer and the retailer of 400+ wellness products, reaching households around the globe. With over 1 million shoppers every month, $2 billion in annual sales, and 96% monthly reorder rates, delivering an exceptional user experience is vital and necessary to the customer journey.
But, the success our teams have enjoyed at Melaleuca hasn’t come easy. This case study aims to break down my roles and responsibilities and uncover the pillars to success as a UX designer in e-commerce.
The Five Pillars
Having worked in e-commerce since 2003, I’ve seen strategies and methodologies come and go. What seems to help companies stand up and hold steadfast in the industry through the years is a dedicated focus on people, research, good design, and business strategy.
As a UX Designer at Melaleuca, I’ve applied that same focus to my work and seen tremendous success in our products as it relates to user experience. My approach stands as a five-pillar motto, which guides my day-to-day efforts at the company.
Pillar 1: Collaboration & rallying our efforts around goals
Collaboration is one of the necessary skills of employment. Far too little emphasis is placed on soft skills and a designer’s ability to rally the team around common goals. At Melaleuca, I’ve made headway in uniting design, product management, and stakeholders in our design efforts.
In each interaction, I look for ways I can make other team members look good. If there’s credit to give for their contribution, I try to call it out.
I look for opportunities to increase my emotional intelligence.
Pillar 2: UX research practices
You have to talk to your customers.
I was tasked with taking over the UX research efforts. Full research program
Understand the need
Why are we doing the research? Ask a lot of questions. What do we know so far? What work has already been done?
Work with designers, product managers, build prototypes
Script, session guide, test plan
Recruiting participants: scheduling, drafting email templates
Conducting moderated research sessions: usability tests, inviting team members, involving stakeholders
Reporting: creating a report, presentation, how to present to stakeholders, packaging up the findings
Pillar 3: Principles of interaction design
Consistent
Visible
Learnable
Predictable
Feedback
Pillar 4: Build trust
Software engineers, business analysts, product managers, stakeholders
What’s important to you? What metrics are you tracking?
Pillar 5: Speak the language of business
Conversion rate
Reorder
Vision
Retention rate, page views, users, sessions, top products by volume, percent of orders online, customer satisfaction, average order size
