The Project
Background
Empire Cat Southwest’s website was ten years old and vastly underperforming if barely —It wouldn’t even load on mobile.
Challenge
Home to multiple departments and thousands of products, the site needed a full overhaul with a fresh brand story and dynamic functionality.
Plan
The UX team was brought in to create an experience that would allow the user to seamlessly search or browse for new, used, and rental equipment fed in from both Empire, and Caterpillar corporate inventory feeds.
Empire Homepage - Old
Empire Product Page - Old
The Process
Onboarding
Coming into the project after discovery, I spent time with clients and key stakeholders to get a full understanding of the project goals and known user pain points.
extra challenge
My onboarding coincided with a temporary loss of a key team member who knew all the ins and out of the project. A lot to wrap my head around and fast—challenge accepted!
extra plan
Without the plan for robust research and short a member, a guerrilla approach was needed. I went on in-depth tours of the headquarters and local dealership. I observed operations, like special safety and accessibility considerations—a really mindful company! I also asked purposeful conversational questions and uncovered unique stories and experiences related to the brand.
The Work
kickoff
Onboarded and inspired with a solid grasp of the client's past pains, present restraints, and future hopes—I was ready to get to work.
process
I facilitated workshops with clients, content, and dev teams. Brainstormed and brainshowered, sketched and freehanded wires and flows to better flush out the taxonomy and understand the core users, brand story, and business evolution.
wireframes
Once all the moving pieces and partners were aligned, the design frenzy kicked off. Flows became sketches that became wireframes that then became prototypes brought to life with a new brand story by the visual design team. Over a few cycles of this process, a fresh and functional experience formed.
The Support
high and wide
Throughout the project, I was given opportunities to support the broader teams with ad hoc requests and time-sensitive needs.
From creating flows to running feature prioritization workshops, I was able to keep the user front of mind in all discussions. Although sometimes ignored and annoying at times, it did help make up for the lack of real user involvement.
Pre-concept visualization — User Flows
Workshop — MVP + Dev Support
Development cycle — Layout Support
The Results
A successful launch! Working closely with the clients, visual design, content, and the in-house developers was key.
The relationships and workflows were now in place for continuous testing and iteration. The Empire Cat website will never be a decade-long afterthought again.
The Bonus
ChallEnge
Midstream into the process, the clients requested a storytelling approach that also celebrated the customers. Without a full marketing team in-house, it was all hands on deck while we looked to bring a content expert onto the team.
process
Having a deep understating of the company, values, and super fan status, I Jumped in to help out. I scanned internal histories and social media and put together a few quick concepts for messaging and even interactive elements—just for fun.
result
I got to flex my creative brand marketing muscles and it was an excellent opportunity to show the wider team my ability to think out of the box.