Nike
w/ UX Collective & Bitesize UX
Tools
Figma, G-Suite, Canva
My Role
UX Writer
Timeline
2 months
Team
Solo, 10+ interviewees
Setting the Stage: Understanding the Problem
Background
Nike by You is a feature that Nike has introduced that allows users to build their own customizable pair of sneakers. The design process takes place entirely online, and it is branded as a quick and simple way to stretch your imagination with Nike. Some examples of personalization include shoe laces, sneaker tongues and colors.
Problem
Nike’s brand is striking and bold. The experience is supposed to be personal, with complete user-in-control flow. How can we increase usage of the Nike by You app whilst maintaining the brand? How can we redefine Nike shoe designing to be less intimidating and exclusive?
Action
Rewrite the user-facing flow of the Nike by You process with words and UX writing that better matches Nike’s company goals. This is less changing the UI and more dressing it up differently. Test to see the impact of UX Writing and changes to address user problems.
User Research: Takeaways & Opportunities
How do users see Nike? We can conduct a ✨vibe check✨ by surveying at least 10 interviewees.
How often do you purchase Nike products?
What do you purchase from Nike?
What do you think of the Nike by You series?
Why do you feel that way?
Have you seen it used often?
Do you use it personally?
What does Nike mean to you?
Why do you feel that way?
What are the first 3 words that come to mind when you think of Nike?
How would you describe Nike’s personality?
On the spectrum of 1-10 for formality, where does Nike’s communication style fall?
Why is that?
Post its were coordinated by similar types of users: Nike fans (orange), less avid fans (black), those who work at Nike (red).
The problem
People want to use and appreciate the unique concept but its difficult because it feels like a lot of work and they don’t know where to start. It seems like a huge gap because the process isn’t as streamlined to make it feel usable. It seems like more work to make a shoe from scratch than scroll through existing designs.
The opportunities
🔄 improve feel and usability of the experience by adjusting language
📢 identify and amplify the voice principles and tone spectrums of major steps in the customizing process.
🔒 ensure that we are addressing user problems with clarity and above all, concision where possible
🔎 discover new ways that Nike can repurpose some of its messages and which messages to discard.
User Research: Finding Nike’s Voice
Nike: Voice Principles
Voice Principles are the “voice” that summarizes the brand, what users/public “hears” or envisions the brand to evoke what emotions
Through interviews from the Nike community as well as the local community, there were repeated words that summarized the brand. I heard quotes like “sharp,” “motivating yet guiding” that narrowed down my UX writing choices.
A quick glance on the websites also support the dynamicity of Nike as well. In the commercial site, small details like “How We Say Thank You,” as flavor text for membership or “Leggings For Every You” for the women’s section for both pregnant or fit or plus size women reinforce Nike’s inspiring and resilient voice.
”Concise, cool, uplifting”
“Motivating and helpful”
Take a look at Nike’s site for more.
Final Voice Principles:
”Encouraging, Action-Oriented, Motivating”
-Bold (confident voice and short sentences)
-Resilient (ensure that there’s simplified enough writing to affirm error recovery)
-Motivational (providing customers support and ideas for their work)
”Trendy, inspirational, bold”
“Coach-like”
”Authentic, youthful”
Notice the short lines: “passion. potential.” Notice the repeated words of “best” and “bold” and “movers,” influencing the voice principles.
“Nike is kind of like that Shia LaBeouf GIF”
Nike: Tone Spectrum
Tone Spectrums are how we designers should select which tone of voice to accomplish company goals, influenced by task and urgency.
Tone Spectrums of industries, and in this case, of Nike are chosen to be flexible enough to be used in different scenarios whilst in the boundaries of strict voice principles. So, there can be a wide array of tones in the spectrum that stays within Nike’s voice of being bold, coach-like and inspirational. In this part of the research, we focus more on how the tone changes during different scenarios of the process.
Final Tone Spectrum
Based on the findings above, I planned to:
🪶use gentler tone in terms of exiting the program/making designs that aren’t feasible or available
😎apply more of a charismatic tone when uploading, publishing or sharing a design to increase confident from user to the shoe
🤝provoke a sense of community by using selected words that make the process feel like it’s a 1-1 with a personal designer, or with working with the larger community base.
We can ensure these are the best range of tones in our usability testing.
Iterations: Putting our best foot forward.
Blank Sneaker Slate
At the start of this journey, the user may feel uncertain or indecisive but also excited! With this blank white sneaker, we want the user to be able to get inspiration and get started as quickly and easily as possible. Our goal is to encourage creativity and lowering the barrier to entry through a simple tutorial. We want our tone to be guiding but also direct.
Sharing Designs
The user might want input from their loved ones or even share their finished product with others. They’d feel excited, confident or nervous to show off their work. Our goal here would be to stimulate satisfaction and motivation to make more or to keep the same energy to celebrate their design. We want the tone to be cheerful and celebratory.
Personalizing Tongues
Here, the user is ready to almost finish their design but have the last step of adding text to the tongue if they’d like. The user might feel eager to place order and possibly a bit impatient or curious. Whatever the case, our goal is to prod them to this optional step and make them feel confident about doing what they want to do, regardless of doing this extra step or not. Our tone should be concise, and hype for the finishing of their work!
Error Recovery
The user here might feel stuck or maybe even a little frustrated. Here, the user is ready to make a purchase but has not done a step which is to add text to the sneaker’s tongue. They may like the shoes looking that way, or didn’t notice the detail. Our goal is to merely give them the option to add text if they would like, but it wouldn’t be mandatory. We want our tone to come off as brief (like it is not a big deal) and friendly.
“NOT SO FAST! It looks so much more complicated! How is this better?”
-you say.
It was here I learned that conventionally, concise is better. But if you look at the other designs, staying consistent with the action message being orange and bolded is important for the cognitive load on the user. Though there is more text, it is important to say why a user should reconsider their design. We don’t want to sound arrogant or dissuade the user from their choice but by providing a candid reason, they know why and more importantly how to make the change. Giving an action item of asking what the next step is also acts as a soft cushion to error recovery rather than saying nothing at all.
In a marketing perspective, this is good practice as we improve customer satisfaction. We don’t want a user to click “keep” which they are implied to do in the left design (especially since it’s black and bolded, it could feel like the “right choice”) and receive their shoe, realize it’s hard to read, and reduce customer satisfaction and deterring them from further purchase. “Keep” in the right design is still black and bolded to reinforce that it’s their decision to stick with their intuition, more supported by the extra text rather than feel like it’s a right or wrong decision without justification or clarity on the left.
Here’s another example: Slack.
“Make work life simpler, more pleasant and more productive.”
In another quick analysis of Slack, we can find that Slack is friendly, conversational and supportive, putting work-life balance first. Similarly, we see another example of more text being a better decision when Slack wants to ensure that users are wary of the work-life balance of other people -”19 people in 7 timezones,” emphasizes the effect of a user’s actions and also defines what @channel means for users who may not know. They still maintain their voice principle by keeping the message straightforward and keeping it witty and friendly with the use of images and the extra “Psst” to provide the users complete control of these popups. This reinforces that UX Writing doesn’t always have to be concise all the time.
Impact: User Testing
While we can perform the typical UX Testing with a survey and ask them about the way the stylized questions feel, UX Writing requires different tests that show us more about the impact of the material that goes beyond experience. We target how the copy, rather than the visual design, affect them.
Survey Testing
So…what? Did this really make a difference? How much can words really make a difference to an entire user flow? Why rewrite rather than redesign?
What do you feel in these user flows?
(Users were not told they were new or in comparison to another so as to not lead them on)
Then, I finally asked some quantifiable questions so that there is a measurable impact on what to decide to change for the future.
I used “clarity score” to see how clear the copy was in terms of what it meant, a “flavor score” to understand how the words felt in terms of energy and word choice, and finally a “practicality score” to see if the copy was understandable and concise in what it aimed to do. I took notes on important quotes from my users and suggestions that they had during our discussion.
It says a lot about how important little details are.”
“Straightforward, clearer, consistent.”
“These details make more of a difference than I thought.”
How many people kept the old design with the shoe that had text the same color as the background? (see Error Recovery)
66% of users kept the old design thinking that it wasn’t actually an error message!
“Isn’t it just telling me that they see a trend in my color palette?”
80% of users said: “I think the right one with additional text has more use, but it feels too crowded.” <— To this I would say that I would instead remove the “What do you want to do?” because the buttons below insinuate that there is action that could be done, and keep the rest for its purpose. Will definitely keep the “Hold On!” for consistency and to let users know that it shouldn’t be an instantly dismissed message-this gives the message room to breathe while also retaining its meaning.
We find that UX Writing can be a sustainable solution, which is cost-effective for businesses who want to see a change without having to break the budget for an entire redesign. It encourages user interaction while bolstering a company’s message and allowing easy navigation.
After all, in a customer perspective, the words are what translates the designer’s intentions. No amount of fancy wireframes or UI jargon can help a user understand (and distinguish a company brand) as much as plain English with a little pizzazz, flair & charisma.
Perspective: Improvements for Next Time
With more time, I would have loved to do more reiterations of UX Writing. With the time allotted, I was able to only reiterate over one cycle of the design process. I want make changes for all kinds of users-people of different ages (older vs younger users) and of different capacities (people of ability vs disability where words may be perceived differently to explore accessibility) and of avid Nike fans and more casual users (to get a holistic representation of users).
Personal Reflection
This short time with the Nike project with Bitesize UX allowed me to appreciate UX and employ my hobby of writing in a more technical way. Through UX writing, I’m able to appreciate and practice empathy and compassion in communication. I hope in the future I get to try different brandings and UX writing for different companies! I was able to learn about being bold and motivated by Nike, and hopefully I can learn to be flexible with different kinds of brandings and represent more voices as well.
Professional Takeaways
Besides introducing me to another potential career path, this project also helped me work quickly under pressure, and improve quicker collaboration with my peers in a short time. This project allowed me to gain perspective of company values and the thought that goes behind branding. I was able to think critically about informing my design decisions through careful word choice instead rather than the standard visual design. I also learned to make design decisions based on the business and the marketplace trends for online shopping as well.