Product design and UX Strategy
My work focuses on simplifying complex systems and designing platforms that improve user experience while supporting meaningful business outcomes.
My work spans enterprise platforms, ecommerce ecosystems, and user portals where clarity, usability, and thoughtful information architecture are essential. I focus on translating complex product requirements into intuitive user experiences while aligning stakeholders around user-centered solutions.
Selected Product Design Case Studies
The following projects illustrate how I approach complex digital platforms - from improving product discoverability and ecommerce performance to simplifying enterprise workflows that support critical data and insights.
Across these projects, my work focused on:
• Simplifying complex workflows and information architecture
• Improving product discoverability and customer understanding
• Aligning stakeholders around clear UX decisions
• Designing scalable systems that support business growth
Case study 1
Transforming an Underperforming Ecommerce Platform
How UX strategy and platform redesign helped grow shop.mercer.com from $0 to $3M in annual revenue.
Product Area: Enterprise ecommerce platform
Role: Creative Director & UX Strategy Lead
Focus: Improving discoverability, product clarity, and purchase conversion
Impact: Grew annual ecommerce revenue from $0 to $3M within 3 years
Outcome
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Grew ecommerce revenue from $0 to $3M annually within three years
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Improved product clarity and customer understanding of Mercer’s data offerings
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Simplified navigation and purchase paths across the ecommerce experience
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Created a scalable foundation for future product sales online
This project demonstrated how thoughtful UX design can translate complex products into clear customer experiences that directly drive revenue.
The Challenge
At the time, shop.mercer.com generated virtually no ecommerce revenue despite offering valuable workforce data products. Because the iMercer platform had already demonstrated strong digital revenue growth, my manager and I were asked to take over the shop.mercer.com experience and lead a redesign focused on improving product clarity and customer understanding.
The existing ecommerce experience made it difficult for potential customers to understand the value of Mercer’s data products. Product descriptions were complex, navigation was unclear, and the purchase flow did little to guide customers toward the right offerings for their needs.
As a result, the platform struggled to convert interest into purchases.
The old shop.mercer.com homepage
Transformation Timeline
The transformation of shop.mercer.com happened through a series of focused UX improvements that progressively improved discoverability, product clarity, and purchase conversion.
Year 1 - Fixing Discoverability
Introduced a clearly visible Shop entry point within the primary navigation and aligned the experience with familiar ecommerce conventions.
This made Mercer’s ecommerce offerings easy for visitors to find for the first time.
Year 2 - Improving Product Clarity & Launch Speed
Redesigned product pages to better explain Mercer’s workforce data products and introduced modular product page templates.
These reusable layout blocks allowed internal teams to quickly launch new offerings while maintaining consistent design and branding.
Year 3 - Scaling the Platform Globally
The redesigned shop architecture enabled regional teams to create localized storefronts while leveraging global product listings.
Local markets could quickly launch region-specific shops—allowing the platform to scale across Mercer’s international business.
Result: Ecommerce revenue grew from $0 to $3M annually within three years.
Understanding the Problem
We began with a comprehensive diagnostic process to understand why the shop wasn’t converting. This included:
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Google Analytics to track user paths and drop-off points
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Heatmaps and session recordings using Lucky Orange
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Usability studies to gather unbiased user feedback
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Accessibility audits via Level Access to identify and correct barriers and ensure compliance
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Customer Journey Mapping to find pain points!!
Key Findings:
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Users often couldn’t even find the shop from the main Mercer site.
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Once there, the site navigation was unintuitive, and product discovery was difficult.
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Product pages lacked crucial information, such as clear pricing and value proposition.
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Checkout was confusing due to not using expected UI norms that did not capitalize on users' learned behavior.
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The post-purchase experience (product access, delivery, confirmation) was unclear.
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The site was not responsive, alienating mobile and tablet users
Diagnosis
The ecommerce shop was effectively hidden within the site.
The only pathway to the store appeared beneath the cart icon with the message: "Your cart is empty... Browse"
*This created two major issues:
• The shop was not visible within the primary navigation
• The language did not match common ecommerce conventions
Because users expect a clearly labeled “Shop” or “Store” entry point, this violated a well-known UX principle often referred to as Jakob’s Law, or the Law of Familiarity.
As a result, many visitors simply never discovered the store.
Before: Hidden shop navigation
After: Visible Shop entry point
This small change increased revenue immediately. Also the other ambiguous navigation taxonomy was changed to terms that clients were seeking and would recognize.
Design Strategy
As Creative Director leading the redesign, I helped shape the UX strategy and platform architecture that transformed Mercer’s ecommerce experience from a hidden feature into a scalable revenue channel.
Key initiatives included:
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Improving discoverability by introducing a clearly visible Shop entry point in the primary navigation
• Clarifying product value by simplifying product descriptions and improving product comparison
• Redesigning product pages to help customers quickly understand and evaluate Mercer’s offerings
• Reducing checkout friction by simplifying the purchase flow and improving transaction usability
• Designing for all devices with a fully responsive system that ensured customers could browse and purchase easily on desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Improving accessibility by applying WCAG 2.1 standards across the experience
• Continuous optimization through A/B testing, behavioral analytics, and usability insights to refine the experience over time
The Results
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Annual sales grew from $0 to over $3 million, establishing ecommerce as a meaningful digital revenue channel
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Improved product discoverability and clarity, leading to reduced bounce rates and lower cart abandonment
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Enabled faster product launches through modular templates, allowing internal teams to bring new offerings to market more efficiently
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Scaled the platform to support global and regional storefronts, expanding reach across international markets
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Improved user satisfaction through usability improvements and clearer purchase flows
Redesigned Homepage
Redesigned Product Page
New Design for Local Shops
Case study 2
Transforming the Client Survey Participation Workflow
Improving how organizations submit workforce data used in Mercer’s benchmarking products
Product Area: Enterprise SaaS Portal
Role: UX Strategy & Product Design Lead
Focus: Simplifying complex enterprise data submission workflows
Outcome
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Reduced friction in the client survey participation process
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Improved clarity around participation timelines and requirements
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Enabled seamless retrieval of previously submitted data
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Decreased support-ticket volume related to surveys
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Strengthened the data foundation powering Mercer’s benchmarking products and insights
Overview
Mercer is recognized globally for delivering trusted workforce benchmarking data and insights across the employee lifecycle. Yet inconsistent participation processes and year-over-year submission challenges were lowering engagement and creating critical gaps in the dataset.
These pain points frustrated clients and undermined the quality of the very insights Mercer’s products depend on.
The Challenge
Clients faced a fragmented experience: multiple data-input methods, inconsistent terminology, and no clear path for repeat participation. The result?
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Declining response rates
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Increased Help Center calls with longer resolution times
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Manual rework for Mercer’s internal teams
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Risk to Mercer’s credibility as the authoritative source for workforce benchmarking
Impact
The redesign delivered a frictionless survey participation experience while significantly strengthening Mercer’s data integrity. Clients became active partners in the process, improving both dataset quality and Mercer’s reputation as the premier provider of employee insights.
My Approach
As UX Strategy & Product Design Lead, I drove an end-to-end redesign focused on transparency, simplicity, and self-service.
The core initiatives were:
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Centralized Participation Dashboard
Created a single source of truth where clients could view all active surveys, deadlines, and resources in one place. -
Streamlined Workflow & Navigation
Redesigned participation paths to eliminate confusion and guide users intuitively through submission. -
Year-Over-Year Continuity
Introduced instant access to prior-year data, allowing clients to reference, update, or reuse previous submissions instead of starting from scratch. -
Self-Service Enablement
Embedded contextual guidance, webinars, and tutorials directly in the platform so clients could complete tasks independently.
Before: Fragmented Experience
Multiple input methods and inconsistent terminology created client confusion, inflated workloads, and drove rising Help Center volume with extended resolution times.
After: Unified Participation Hub
The previous public survey page was replaced by a single, intuitive interface that consolidated all information, resources, and submission options.
Guided steps, direct access to historical data, and embedded learning resources transformed participation from a painful annual chore into a quick, self-service process.
Design Highlights
Participation calendar: One glance view of all surveys, timelines, and supporting materials
Personalized Participation Paths: Tailored journeys based on client type and needs
In-Platform Webinars & Tutorials: On-demand videos and recordings that reduced Help Center dependency
Mercer websites
redesigns, rebranding, accessibility, ecommerce, and more.
imercer.com website
Homepage redesign
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Content was analyzed and divided into a more “sectional” layout. This emphasized the UX principles of “grouping” and “common region” to provide easier skimming of content.
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Using analysis of heatmaps, Google Analytics, and clicks:
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Promoted the most accessed element on the page and featured it as the hero, serving up to users what they want the most.
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Simplified and reduced the content based on what was the most popular content elements.
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Through UI enhancements, created hierarchy of CTAs using buttons and links.
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On the maintenance/back-end side, we created a templated/sectioned “skin”, which simplifies the code and greatly enhanced the ease for content editors of making edits without mistakes.
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Created a flexible ad space for a more efficient and quicker time to post sales/promotions.
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Created a secondary “promo” spot to quickly bring important updates to users, such as participation info or important releases.
Before
After
Product page redesign
imercer.com website
Content and layout were evaluated using a range of analytics tools to identify which information was most viewed, most utilized, and most essential, as well as to determine users’ key pain points that hindered their progression through the purchasing funnel.
* Page redesign breakdown at bottom *
Before
After
Product page redesign breakdown
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Through UI enhancements, lessened amount of competing CTAs, yet created more obvious secondary-CTAs.
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"Purchase options", pricing, and "Add to Cart" moved to the top right side of the page. No more digging for pricing and purchasing – the main purchasing needs are right up top. Previously purchasing was at the bottom of the page hidden in a tabbed interface.
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Tooltips in the purchase box to explain concepts that some users might not understand, such as what being a Participant or Non-participant means, and what the “WIN access” or other access methods means.
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More interactive components to minimize lengthy content / descriptions, such as the "Product Highlights" accordion section.
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Put the Product Details and the Product Highlights above the fold (Publish date, Positions published, Organizations, Observations) for users to get the most important content asap:
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Created a secondary "Product Details" tabbed section to provide more lengthy content and to contain “the proof” of the product details, such as videos, demos, sample reports and downloadables.
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Through user research we discovered that clients often did not have a clear idea what was going to happen after they purchased a product. Sometimes access required additional time and info. This section:
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Clearly explained the process as well as providing a direct path to Customer support.
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Reduced the calls to Customer support, directly reflecting a more effective, user-friendly design that delivered measurable business value through cost reduction and improved customer experience.
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Added a specific section for Survey Participation and to answer participation questions.
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Added a FAQs section that answers most commonly asked questions from clients. This also reduced customer-support calls which lowered operational costs and freed support teams to focus on more complex issues, improving overall efficiency.
Information Architecture (IA) redesign and template imlementation
imercer.com website
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The website underwent a structural and visual redesign to establish a clear hierarchy of page types - including Level 1 pages, Level 2 pages, product pages, etc. — ensuring a consistent and intuitive experience for clients navigating the site.
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A templated design system was introduced to streamline content creation and editing, giving content editors clear guidance for building new pages.
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The information architecture and taxonomy were restructured to align with terminology and categories more familiar to clients, further improving overall usability and findability.
Level 1 - Category page
Level 2 - Category detail page
Level 3 - Specific product page
imercer.com website
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The account area was redesigned to eliminate the friction caused by the previous card-driven layout, which forced users to leave the page and reorient themselves with each interaction.
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The new experience uses a persistent, side-based navigation that allows users to move fluidly between account sections while maintaining context.
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This design reduces cognitive load by keeping all options visible and predictable, supports faster task completion, and helps users build a clearer mental model of their account structure.
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Overall, the redesign creates a more intuitive, efficient, and user-centered experience that better supports common account management tasks.
Redesign of the user's "My Account" section
Redesign of the whole checkout process
imercer.com website
Users were abandoning checkout due to a long, fragmented flow, limited visibility into their purchase details, and friction around delivery information. These issues also created downstream operational challenges, including increased Customer Service calls to collect missing fulfillment details.
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Research & Insights
We analyzed usability studies, heatmaps, and analytics to identify drop-off points and user confusion within the existing checkout. Research revealed that users wanted fewer steps, clearer confirmation of their order details, and a more seamless mobile experience. Accessibility gaps were also identified that prevented the flow from meeting WCAG requirements.
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Design Approach
The checkout was restructured to reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase while maintaining clarity and user confidence. A persistent order summary was introduced to keep the entire purchase visible throughout the process, reinforcing transparency and minimizing errors. Required delivery information was intentionally collected at the right moments in the flow to support successful fulfillment without overwhelming the user.
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Accessibility & Mobile Optimization
The experience was fully optimized for mobile, with responsive layouts, larger touch targets, and simplified interactions. Accessibility improvements were implemented to meet WCAG standards, including clearer form labels, improved contrast, keyboard navigation support, and screen-reader compatibility.
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Outcomes
The redesigned checkout created a faster, more intuitive, and accessible purchasing experience. Improved data collection reduced the need for Customer Service follow-up calls, while the streamlined flow and persistent summary supported higher completion rates and a smoother path to purchase.
Cart page: Added collection of the 3 users information (that came with the purchase of the product) so Customer service did not have to spend a lot of time tracking down that info. Reduced calls to our Contact Center and delivered the product quicker to the client.
Checkout page: Reduced # of steps to finish order to 3 steps; all of which can be done with leaving the page. Previous steps could be accessed and edited. Also kept a persistent "Order Summary" to the right.
Since Mercer is a B2B company, many times clients couldn't just check out with a credit card, they needed to submit an invoice to their company to get authorization for purchasing. We added options to choose your "payment type".
Product page: implemented an "Added to cart" popup so it's clear that the product actually got added to the cart, tells them how many other items are in their cart, and gives them options to stay on the page or go to checkout. All without leaving the page they are on. This popup was for desktop only which is how most of our users access our sites. Mobile optimization used a modified version so the popup didn't take over the screen
Additional imercer work
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Wishlist creation - for client YOY survey product purchases
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Notification and alert system - to alert of software system downtimes and other important info.
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Promotional ad system using a templated back-end solution. This allowed being able to quickly add sales banners to only certain specific surveys, products or landing pages. Greatly reduced the hours spent putting sales up on hundreds of specific pages (while excluding other pages).
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Created a built-in A/B testing system - allowed incremental testing to be done quickly and fast iterations to market.
Shop.mercer.com
Projects and designs coming soon...
