Active Brands
Active Brands
Project Summary
Active Brands is a Nordic incubator for premium activewear brands, each with a distinct identity but a shared digital shopping experience. With a major platform migration underway, the company wanted to seize the opportunity to reimagine its e-commerce offer. The goal was to define what an ideal shopping experience looks like for online activewear customers
TEAM & ROLE
Role: UX Researcher & Designer
Team: Myself, Design Director and Project Manager
My Contribution: Led all research activities, conducted stakeholder interviews, designed the customer survey, analysed data, created user archetypes, led workshops, and designed high-fidelity UI mockups.
PROJECT OUTCOME
To begin, I conducted over 10 hours of interviews with brand and e-commerce managers to gather insights into each brand’s future ambitions and current frustrations. I mapped out a shared customer journey, identifying overlapping pain points and opportunities, which I presented during a stakeholder workshop to build alignment and define success. I then designed a 20-question survey—distributed in five countries and two languages—that gathered over 4000 responses about online/offline shopping habits, decision drivers, and customer expectations. Parallelly, I ran a workshop with customer service representatives, whose close contact with users surfaced key usability issues, particularly in the checkout process and discount code application. The insights shaped a Vision Experience Map created in Figma, combining user needs, analytics, benchmarks, and a MoSCoW prioritisation model. Finally, I produced high-fidelity mockups to illustrate what the new digital experience could look like—incorporating features like a fit finder, improved product storytelling, and material-focused visuals.
WHAT I LEARNED
This project reinforced how valuable Customer Service Representatives are as a source of direct, unfiltered user feedback. Their inclusion in the research process helped surface overlooked yet critical issues that directly impacted the shopping experience. I also learned the importance of piloting surveys—something the client initially skipped, leading to avoidable technical issues. Overall, I gained a deeper understanding of balancing business needs with nuanced user expectations, and how to unify multiple brands under a coherent digital vision without sacrificing individuality.
The project successfully aligned five brand teams behind a shared future direction, backed by real user insights and stakeholder priorities. The Vision Experience Map became a strategic roadmap for future development. Customer service feedback was elevated to the forefront of UX priorities, and the final presentation deck served as a comprehensive tool for internal advocacy. High-fidelity mockups offered a visual blueprint for implementation, emphasising premium UX touches like quality imagery, detailed fit guidance, and strong brand storytelling to justify premium pricing and improve user satisfaction.
PROJECT OUTCOME
This project reinforced how valuable Customer Service Representatives are as a source of direct, unfiltered user feedback. Their inclusion in the research process helped surface overlooked yet critical issues that directly impacted the shopping experience. I also learned the importance of piloting surveys—something the client initially skipped, leading to avoidable technical issues. Overall, I gained a deeper understanding of balancing business needs with nuanced user expectations, and how to unify multiple brands under a coherent digital vision without sacrificing individuality.
WHAT I LEARNED
Problem Statement
Although each brand under the Active Brands umbrella had different goals and personalities, they all relied on the same e-commerce infrastructure. The existing platform was failing to meet customer expectations and internal ambitions. We needed to uncover what mattered most to users when shopping for activewear online and create a shared future vision that respected each brand's uniqueness while improving the overall user experience.
Goals & Success Metrics
Map the current service experience across brands
Identify users’ real needs, behaviours, and expectations
Define a shared vision for the future shopping experience
Prioritise actions with business and user impact in mind
Deliver high-fidelity UI concepts to guide implementation
Success Metrics:
Strong stakeholder alignment on vision and priorities
Clear definition of brand-specific and shared user needs
Survey insights from 4000+ users to back design direction
Vision Experience Map used to guide roadmap development
Process
Mapping the current service experience through stakeholder interviews
Designing and distributing a multi-country survey (4000+ responses)
Conducting a workshop with customer service representatives
Identifying user archetypes based on research
Competitor and benchmark analysis
Creating a new service vision and prioritisation model
Delivering high-fidelity UI mockups of the future experience
Actions Taken:
To begin, I conducted over 10 hours of interviews with brand and e-commerce managers to gather insights into each brand’s future ambitions and current frustrations. I mapped out a shared customer journey, identifying overlapping pain points and opportunities, which I presented during a stakeholder workshop to build alignment and define success. I then designed a 20-question survey—distributed in five countries and two languages—that gathered over 4000 responses about online/offline shopping habits, decision drivers, and customer expectations. Parallelly, I ran a workshop with customer service representatives, whose close contact with users surfaced key usability issues, particularly in the checkout process and discount code application. The insights shaped a Vision Experience Map created in Figma, combining user needs, analytics, benchmarks, and a MoSCoW prioritisation model. Finally, I produced high-fidelity mockups to illustrate what the new digital experience could look like—incorporating features like a fit finder, improved product storytelling, and material-focused visuals.
Goals & Success Metrics
Map the current service experience across brands
Identify users’ real needs, behaviours, and expectations
Define a shared vision for the future shopping experience
Prioritise actions with business and user impact in mind
Deliver high-fidelity UI concepts to guide implementation
Success Metrics:
Strong stakeholder alignment on vision and priorities
Clear definition of brand-specific and shared user needs
Survey insights from 4000+ users to back design direction
Vision Experience Map used to guide roadmap development
hello@ilariaoberto.com
PROJECT OUTCOME
The project successfully aligned five brand teams behind a shared future direction, backed by real user insights and stakeholder priorities. The Vision Experience Map became a strategic roadmap for future development. Customer service feedback was elevated to the forefront of UX priorities, and the final presentation deck served as a comprehensive tool for internal advocacy. High-fidelity mockups offered a visual blueprint for implementation, emphasising premium UX touches like quality imagery, detailed fit guidance, and strong brand storytelling to justify premium pricing and improve user satisfaction.
WHAT I LEARNED
This project reinforced how valuable Customer Service Representatives are as a source of direct, unfiltered user feedback. Their inclusion in the research process helped surface overlooked yet critical issues that directly impacted the shopping experience. I also learned the importance of piloting surveys—something the client initially skipped, leading to avoidable technical issues. Overall, I gained a deeper understanding of balancing business needs with nuanced user expectations, and how to unify multiple brands under a coherent digital vision without sacrificing individuality.
hello@ilariaoberto.com