Finish Line

Mobile App Strategy + Future Vision

Roles: Competitive Research, Product Strategy, Feature Ideation, Design of Future Vision Concepts

Year: 2015

Background and Assignment

Finish Line is a shoe and apparel retailer in a highly-competitive space working to differentiate by delivering great style and a superior shopping experience to their customers.

Finish Line asked the design firm Green Stone to help design a future vision for their mobile app. Finish Line were looking to completely overhaul their mobile app experience to answer feedback from their current users and to attract more millennial sneakerhead customers. This project provided a great opportunity to examine all Finish Line retail touch points and reimagine the value and role of the mobile app through all phases of the purchase process.

I was lucky enough to get to work directly with Matt Walsh, CEO/Founder of Green Stone, and Noel Franus, an expert experience design consultant, on this project. The project consisted of three week-long sprints - research, strategy and design.

Research

We started by immersing ourselves in the brand and their properties. We audited their existing app. We shopped at FinishLine.com and documented the experience. We visited stores where we interacted with staff, spoke with customers, tried on product and made purchases - documenting key insights about the experiences. I also conducted user interviews with sneakerheads around the US to gain insights into their preferences, purchase process and painpoints they hit along the way.

With a fresh understanding of Finish Line properties and target customers, I dove into competitive research to gain an understanding of the competitive landscape along with features, strengths and weaknesses of current app experiences of Finish Line's competitors. I also expanded my audit to examine best-in-class and innovative mobile retail experiences outside of Finish Line's competitor set.

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Workshops

Throughout our sprints, I was heavily involved in strategy and design workshops, both with the Green Stone team and with Finish Line clients. I helped develop digital channel strategy, ideated feature possibilities, designed vision concepts, and developed materials for client-facing presentations. The features we developed focused on utilizing key user data to provide a unique, personalized experience made up of inspiration, product recommendations, relevant product drops and deals tailored to each user.

Design

The design phase posed a fun challenge in restraint and clarity. The goal of the documentation was to sell in a strategy shift and show them valuable feature possibilities for their app experience. We needed clear diagrams and system flows, along with visuals to accompany product ideas. The concept visuals needed to be clear and neutrally designed, but also be aspirational to entice the viewer.

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The Result

Our hard work resulted in Finish Line buying in on our vision and Green Stone was awarded the project of designing the future mobile app. The new app experience launched in April of 2017, and I’m proud to say that many of the features and early design considerations I helped develop are featured in the current Finish Line app experience.