Ux Designer from conception to delivery
January 2023
Adobe XD
Figma
MICHELLADA
Michellada is a DJ based in San Diego, CA. Michellada’s unique and playful mash-ups of modern pop music have earned her a dedicated fanbase throughout the Pacific Coast. Michellada’s website offers a list of her tour dates, a number of her latest tracks for purchase and download, along with merchandise (“Merchellada”) for purchase.
A new feature in progress on Michellada’s website is a merchandise customization flow, which will allow users to customize each item according to their individual style. Michellada encourages fans to explore their creativity: she aims to create a unique experience for users to express their originality.
Challenge
Users — especially Millennials and Gen Z — want creative freedom to make items their own, but often face confusing interfaces, limited design options, and unclear pricing.
What should be a fun and creative process quickly turns into a confusing one, filled with cluttered interfaces, limited design options, and surprise fees.
The Result? Frustrated users, abandoned carts, and missed opportunities for brands to connect with their communities.
The Solution
Design a merchandise customization experience that’s smooth, playful, and intuitive across devices — empowering users to create something that feels personal without getting overwhelmed.
This was the vision — but turning it into a reality meant understanding what users really needed and where current experiences were falling short.
Here's how I got there.
"If it takes more than a few minutes or costs too much, I’ll just buy something else instead."
Partipant #2
Understanding the Audience
As a longtime fan and friend of Michellada, I’ve experienced her shows and seen firsthand the type of crowd she draws: creative, stylish, music-obsessed, and mostly made up of young students and professionals.
I used this familiarity as a foundation to identify the target users of her website — people who care about personal expression through both music and fashion.
To dive deeper, I focused on qualitative research methods: I interviewed users, created personas, mapped out pain points, and ran a competitive audit to uncover what’s working (and what’s not) in merch customization flows across the web.
Interview Guide
How would you describe your taste in music and personal style?
What was the last concert you attended? What type of music was it?
Do you usually purchase merchandise at concert venues or online?
Would you prefer to purchase pre-made merchandise or customize your own?
Can you describe your experience customizing merchandise online?
What challenges did you face regarding the shopping experience?
Is there anyway in which you feel these challenges could be resolved?
What benefits do you see in customizing merchandise?
Persona Development
Using insights from my interview guide, I developed user personas to represent key audience types and their needs.
Pasha | 19 | Artist
Pasha is fan of Michellada who wants more creative freedom for customizing merchandise online because he wants to capitalize on his creativity by creating something unique to him.
“I’m frustrated by the limited choices for customization. Often times, you can only choose from pre-selected colors and sections of fabric. It’d be cool to have some sort of morph tool and/or a color wheel so I could sample any color and match it perfectly.”
Maya | 26 | Working Professional
Maya is a music lover who wants to support one of her favorite DJs, Michellada. Maya would like to customize Michellada’s merchandise to make it fit her personal style but is skeptical about online customization as it can be a long and frustrating process.
“I think customization should be simpler - it can get complicated and involves a lot of going back and forth. I’d like if you could choose a few designs and compare them.”
Key Insights from User Research
Interview responses revealed that while users are excited by the idea of customizing merch, their actual experiences have been mostly frustrating. Three main pain points came up consistently.
Insight #1:
Customizing merch online often feels clunky and confusing. Many sites are visually overwhelming, with too much text or too many steps.
Insight #2:
Users want their designs to feel personal — but limited customization options (like color choices or font styles) often get in the way.
Insight #3:
Customization tends to come with a high price tag, and hidden costs for "premium" options leave users feeling misled and discouraged.
Competitive Analysis
Most Customization Flows Prioritize Options Over Usability
Custom Ink offers extensive creative freedom, but the experience can quickly become overwhelming. With too many tools and little guidance, users often face decision fatigue. Pricing isn’t visible until late in the process, which can lead to sticker shock.
Other platforms like Nike and Converse show similar issues — with limited customization options and clunky, multi-step flows that sacrifice ease of use for control.
Custom Ink
Takeaway: More options ≠ better UX. Users want creative freedom, not complexity.
DEFINE
Our user is a busy young professional who is a fan of Michellada. She needs a simple, affordable and creative way to customize merchandise online because she wants to create a unique piece for herself that reflects her individual style while also remaining within her budget.
IDEATE
To begin the ideation phase, I considered ways to address my main user pain points. I asked myself, How Might We:
Simplify the user flow without sacrificing the amount of customization options available?
Create a way for users to have more creative freedom on their designs?
Provide users with better representations of what they can expect?
Be transparent to users about the cost of customizing merchandise?
Make the shopping experience fun, easy to use, and engaging?
New Flow
I proposed a new user flow for customizing and purchasing merchandise online that would allow users to have the option to add as little or as many customizations to their design as they please.
Sketching
I started brainstorming ideas for the design of my new user flow using pen and paper. I completed a crazy eights exercise, narrowed down ideas based on user needs, and consolidated features to include in my low-fidelity prototype.
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
I converted my paper wireframes to digital wireframes using Adobe XD. I created a low-fidelity prototype from the wireframes to get an idea of how the website would function. I wanted to collect user feedback as early as possible in the design process so I could address any major user pain points before adding visual design.
TEST
In my first unmoderated usability study, I asked five participants to complete the main user flow: add a logo, image, and text to a custom piece of merchandise and complete the checkout process. I discovered three actionable insights from their interaction with the product:
Less Clicks: Users need design elements to automatically appear on the design workspace instead of having to drag and drop elements.
Comparing Designs: Users need a way to add and compare multiple designs in order to have more creative freedom on their designs.
Better Visual Cues: User need a more intuitive way of resizing and repositioning elements.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
After iterating on my initial prototype, I started to add visual elements to my design. I then connected screens to create a final prototype for testing. I wanted to utilize design elements to create an experience that reflects Michellada’s music and style.
Challenge 1: Simplifying the User Flow
Creating a simple user flow was challenging, as I wanted to offer as many customization options as possible without overwhelming the user with information. To prevent cluttering, I used a progressive disclosure approach. I added a side menu to the customization window that contains three clear labels: “Logo,” “Image,” and “Text.” Each label can be opened to reveal a larger set of specialized options upon request. This allows users to spend time on features that are useful to them and avoid unnecessary information.
Challenge 2: Encouraging Creative Freedom
Keeping in mind both user and business goals, I wanted to create a way for users to design clothing that reflects their individual style. I had to decide what design options would allow more creative freedom than what current merchandise platforms offer. I decided to add a color wheel, a number of different font options, the option to create custom text and even the option to upload a custom image. In addition, I created a drag and drop feature, which allows users to resize text and images and position them anywhere on the design canvas.
Choose Logo Style
Choose Custom Color
Resize & Reposition
Challenge 3: Clear Visual Representation
To help users be more confident in their final design decision, I wanted to provide an accurate representation of what their designs look like. I added a preview window at each step of the customization process to allow for quick comparisons of different fonts, colors, and styles. I created the option to add multiple elements to one piece of clothing so users navigate back and forth on different designs and decide what they like best.
Challenge 4: Accurate Pricing
I wanted to be clear about the pricing of custom merchandise in order to avoid any user frustration. As customizing clothing comes with a price, I had to decided between two options: an inexpensive base price with additional fees for elements added, or one set, more expensive, price. I decided to offer one set price. Although the price would be slightly more expensive, users would be certain of what to expect before starting the process.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Interact with Prototype
STYLE GUIDE
I wanted the design of Michellada’s website to mimic a live DJ concert. I used photos of Michellada’s previous concert sets for inspiration and noticed a theme: dark, high contrasting colors, often with pops of bright red. I decided to create a dark ambience by making all background colors black. I made call-to-action buttons a bright red color that contrasts with the background and imitates flashing lights. The main typeface of choice was Impact, a bold sans serif font. I felt this typeface fit the design of the website due to its dark, edgy style.
TAKEAWAYS
As a friend and fan of Michellada, working on her merchandise customization flow was very exciting and rewarding. I was able to experiment with new ideas and continue practicing the research and design process. While I tried to tackle as many user issues as possible, more usability studies would need to be conducted to continue iterating on my designs. In addition, I would have to work with merchandise manufacturers to learn more about how feasible my design would be in real life. For example, although I would like to keep pricing affordable, I would need to research more into the costs associated with merchandise customization. I am starting to recognize that while a design may work well in theory, available resources and technology may restrict the execution of the design.
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