Overview

I joined THG ingenuity during a pandemic so it came with its fair share of challenges. However, the fact that online sales were booming at the time meant I saw it as a great opportunity to continue developing my UX toolkit as well as learning more about the e-commerce space.

 

What I worked on

The hut groups (THG) UX team is divided into multiple areas. When I joined I was assigned to the “Ingenuity” department. These were the group of designers responsible for onboarding new clients and helping them migrate to the THG platform. When a new brand came through, an Ingenuity designer would be assigned to them, then working in a 2 week sprint they would design their new site. A typical sprint for me looked like so:

 

• I would begin by reviewing the PRD with the account’s PM, this was so I could better understand the goals, deliverables, their target market, success metrics, projects timings etc.

• Once that was done I would sit through a brand immersion session. This was a nice way of meeting the clients and also validating what they are hoping to achieve by moving to THG.

• The first design activity was translating their brand DNA to a THG digital brand config (DBG). This is essentially the CSS that all the styling will be pulled from. We look at the fonts, colours, buttons, logos, icons etc.

• While waiting for the DBG to be signed off I would collaborate with the SEO team to explore possible information architecture improvements.

• Once the DBG was signed off I could begin designing the core pages of their new website. This included the homepage, category landing page, Product display page, Product listing page and Basket. The wireframes for each were built out using THG’s design system, a library of widgets/components which can be used like lego blocks to create a page. The ones selected and their arrangement would be driven by the clients requirements. We use a component library to allow for a speedy build.

• Wireframes would then be put into prototypes and played back to the client. There would more than likely be amends so this design and refine process would repeat until designs were signed off.

• After sign off, designs would be handed over to the development team for build then usually a few weeks later it would be ready for a Ux review

• If I was happy and so was the client we can then launch and Go live.

 

During my time in the department I designed 12 live sites for large brands such as Homebase, Speedo, Berghaus etc.

 

Key learnings

• Due to the quick nature of projects the position was great at improving my time management

• Clients can be challenging at times and when combined with the added time pressure managing emotions was key when managing client relationships

• Communicating designs in online presentations. Working remotely meant all designs were shared via teams calls, something I got plenty of practise in

• Efficient collaboration when working with different departments was crucial.

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My next step:

I didn’t actually leave THG, I was promoted to mid weight and then requested to move teams. As you can imagine due to the speed of Ingenuity's site builds there was an element of drag and drop to the designs.  I craved more creative freedom so moved to the “Features”  team. These designers are the ones who essentially design the widgets/ components/lego bricks that “ingenuity” use. When I joined they had just begun building the new V2 of THG’s e commerce platform so there was plenty to do.