— Zappos — The Shoe Fits

Zappos.com is shoes, and quite a lot more. With Happy Cog’s newly redesigned experience, the amazing diversity of products offered is showcased in reusable self-contained modules. Happy Cog and the Zappos user experience team recognized that there needed to be a common style that tied together all of their products and associated attributes.

Happy Cog’s module solutions were built on a universal grid structure, normalized typographic choices, and an enjoyable interface system permeated with the cheeky Zappos.com voice. The greatest benefit of this family of solutions? It’s powerfully tied to the brand, and instantly portable to a wide variety of applications beyond the website. You’ll recognize the website visual style in iPad and iPhone applications, television advertisements, and even the bins you put your shoes in at airport security checkpoints.

We are pretty keen on viewing design as a verb, not a noun here. We never finish designs, we never “redesign,” we evolve. Business needs are always changing, economies change, customer needs change—hence how we tackle these issues need to evolve.”

— Jaimee Newberry,
Former Sr. UX and Product Manager
Zappos.com

At the onset of our engagement, Zappos.com had a fantastic problem: their business had far outpaced the aesthetic of their website. The design didn’t reflect the cornerstone of Zappos culture: amazing customer service. Happy Cog captured that hallmark in a redesign that surfaces their full-on service experience, the diversity of their products, and their quirky, fun personality.

Initially, Happy Cog was brought in to assist in a comprehensive “re-skin” effort. Several challenges were easy to diagnose. The site lacked a defining and consistent style, in both graphic presentation and tone. Visual choices, copy, and the user experience lacked the personality and high expectations that customers experienced with other touch-points like lightning fast shipping and fanatical phone support.

Aware of this broadening gap, the Zappos.com team embraced the idea of a website redesign initiative to more faithfully represent Zappos as a company: one that was fun, friendly, and endlessly helpful. For the tireless and reliable customer service department, the site had to be the place where their unique brand of service was matched with a world-class product browsing interface.