I recently spent a few weeks holding structural space for a client whose team members have been incorrectly seized by the ego-driven toxic masculinity that is all too common in the direct-to-consumer ecommerce space. It was fun pushing back on literally everything, saying “no” seven times a day, hauling people on calls and telling them are fundamentally, cosmically wrong in front of all of the people who are responsible for paying them. I love having fun. Don’t we all?
I’m reminded of that one time in 2009 when someone got the company to print business cards for me with the job title “Fun Ruiner” as a joke, only it wasn’t a joke then and it’s not a joke now. The client hired me for this. The CEO supports the practice, which is sacred. Two objectively incorrect people got fired two weeks after my arrival. Now we are all here, witnessing.
At Draft, we sell design research, you buy A/B tests, and the fundamental outcome is deep structural cultural change. This is evident in our case studies, which speak more broadly to cultural change than numbers in specific. We are good at shifting psyches, at redefining what “focus” should be.
Meanwhile, I finished writing the end of Store Design last week, and in it I spoke of the deep psychospiritual impoverishment afflicting ecommerce, and how it will bring about the long-in-coming conclusion of independent business, as we are all eaten by a company who actually knows how to research and focus on customer needs, unlike most store owners.
The playbook is there. You may follow it or not. This is what consequentiality looks like. I invite you to witness.
This week, for paid members
- Our paid lesson this week teaches you how to research specifically for reworking your product detail page descriptions. All are different, most underperform!
- Our design of the week covers a fascinating way to filter a store’s whole product catalog. Works great for lots of SKUs!
- And finally, our fortnightly teardown is for home goods brand Brooklinen.
Want in? Join us now – named one of the best ecommerce communities going on the web.
Links
- Baymard updates their essential and vital requirement that you post delivery date, not shipping speed. Evergreen.
- NN/group with a lovely twofer this week. First up is the essential need to conclusively and permanently end the requirement of passwords across all of technology.
- Next up, from the people who invented heuristic evaluations, is a how-to for running one. They’re not a silver bullet, but they do help quite a lot with the essentials!
- What value-based designers can learn from dark patterns. The FTC should outlaw them, in all forms, period. And they should form a committee to act rapidly against new ones as they keep appearing. Penalties should begin with the letter B.