Assignment: “Maintenance”?
Our XD team recently received a request to add a new premium product to our client’s website. The work order had specified creating a new set pages for this product, including an overview and other pages, each of which would focus on a specific set of features,. This would effectively treat the new offering the same as another baseline product.
Initially, our team took the direction given from the accounts department and looked at this as a maintenance task, handing it to a junior designer to replicate an existing format and fill it with new content. However, our junior designer quickly encountered problems: the pages weren’t coming together; there was frustration over too few assets and too much repeated content. After reviewing an initial round of comps in-progress, my interest was piqued and I investigated.
This Needs Some Investigation
Several of the features and benefits of the premium product in question were in fact identical to the base product. On the other hand, several other features were completely redesigned and nothing like the baseline. I realized this should position our premium product as its own special case, and it deserved special treatment. We had not treated any of our products differently to this point, so I was expecting some resistance to the idea.
Building a Case
I needed to build supporting materials to pitch my idea, so I then went through the set of available photography and reviewed the existing baseline product pages. I documented the features that were shared and those that were unique. I paid special attention to where the entire content piece (photo and description) would have to be replicated, and where no photo of the premium version was available.
The result? If we followed the “maintenance” way of thinking as outlined in the work order, then nearly 80% of the content would be replicated. We would have a corresponding 80% shortfall in image assets if we were required to cover every content element on our new pages. This was obviously unacceptable, and further reinforced my idea of a special treatment.
A Bold, New Approach
So, instead of reinventing the wheel and trying to mask heavily replicated content, I suggested a new approach: an all-in-one, turbo-charged overview page. By including only the most important features that differentiated the premium line, we were able to eliminate redundancy and reposition the product as its own offering for a high-impact product reveal.
The Takeaway
My main takeaways from this experience:
- Red flags of initial frustration and bewilderment about the task at hand are worth paying attention to.
- Despite my initial misgivings about pushback from outside the XD team, making the bold decision and backing it up led the project in the right direction.
- The little bit of extra work it takes to compare different approaches is usually worth it.
- When you present your evidence, make it measurable.
- Don’t be afraid to show how your XD team can be problem solvers for the client and the end user, instead of just a “maintenance” crew.
What was your experience like where those initial red flags told you to take a different course? I’d love to hear your ideas and examples in the comments below.
