Site MapUser Experience for a Better World Site MapUser Experience for a Better World 
Barb Tai
When we do user testing, we invite all of the stakeholders to observe. This really helps to inform the stakeholders about user experience and the issues that come up for users on our sites."
by Diane Chojnowski
Barb Tai, CUA, had a big challenge as Senior Creative Designer for Sears Holdings Online Services. With a BFA in Graphic Design and a Master's Degree in Electronic Media, Barb has lots of experience designing websites for major retailers. She was brought into Sears Holdings to help create a user-friendly website for customers to schedule appointments for local services such as in-home appliance repairs and even major home improvements like roofing and siding installation.
Sears Holdings is one of the largest retailers in America. With approximately 3,900 retail stores in the United States and Canada, they are the leading home appliance retailer, as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, home electronics, and automotive repair and maintenance. Almost everything you need for your home can be found at Sears and their goal is to help improve your life by helping you improve your home.
Sears had four websites dedicated to four types of home services: Repair, Installation, Cleaning, and Home Improvement. Each of them had a different look and feel and was focused on one unique area. They recognized the value of creating one online customer interface where users could easily schedule appointments for repair and installation work for all four categories of service. The challenge was to integrate all four of these services into one website and provide a consistent look and feel as well as a consistent user experience that would allow customers to schedule services easily.
The project to integrate all the products and all the services into the engaging Sears Home Services website involved the creative team, the UX team, front-end and back-end developers, plus people on the business side. Their approach with this project was to gather the requirements and consider user experience from the very beginning when designing. "User experience has informed all of the design decisions," said Barb. "The look and feel of the design is part of usability. Even if we chose blue as a color, we considered how that would be perceived by the user, as opposed to using red."
Integrating all of the product lines into one site gives the customer a consistent user experience and also has benefits on the business side. "It provides opportunities for improving the marketing messages and helps with cross-selling," Barb explains. "People working on a project re-designing their kitchen might also be interested in the other services we offer like appliance repair and carpet cleaning."
The site is now one year old and conversion rate has gone up month by month. Barb and her team have done user testing to validate the design iterations and continue ongoing improvement adding new functionality and making changes to improve user experience. "Sears is committed to user experience," she said. "One of the things I really appreciate about working here is that Sears has a huge usability testing site. When we do user testing, we invite all of the stakeholders to observe. This really helps to inform the stakeholders about user experience and the issues that come up for users on our sites. Testing a design gives tremendous satisfaction – to see a user successfully complete a task is very fulfilling. It's really the highlight of my experience as a designer."
Barb adds, "Having the CUA certification has validated my work as a designer. I feel confident that I am using the best practices to design from a user-centric perspective."
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