Project Details
Cabela’s made a strategic priority to enhance its digital presence, allocating a substantial portion of its budget toward digital marketing and advertising. This shift initiated an in-depth evaluation of the website’s performance, with a focus on improving customer engagement and optimizing user experiences across digital touchpoints.
Client:
Cabela’s
Challenges:
My team, the UI team, was tasked with collaborating closely with the UX team despite each group reporting to different VPs—a dynamic that historically presented challenges in achieving alignment. The project required merging creative vision with strategic goals to develop a cohesive redesign that addressed performance gaps and improved user engagement.
Deliverables:
UX/UI Updated Designs, Homepage Redesign Concepts, Banner Testing and Optimization
Skills:
User Interface Design, Collaboration, A/B Testing and Data Analysis, Creative Direction, Cross-Functional Team Leadership
Collaborating to make informed decisions
Background Info
Cabela’s sought to strengthen its digital presence by transitioning a significant portion of its budget from catalog marketing to digital initiatives. This shift prompted a comprehensive evaluation of the website’s performance to enhance customer engagement and elevate the brand’s online experience.
Phase 1: Define the Problem
My team (UI team) and the UX team, reporting to different VPs, collaborated to align design objectives—a challenging yet rewarding effort aimed at bridging departmental silos. We began by conducting extensive research, comparing leading industry websites, and gathering inspiration and design insights.
The UX and UI teams analyzed top 20 competitors, such as Amazon, Apple, REI, and more focusing on elements like navigation simplicity, image use, and design hierarchy to inform our direction.
UX Research
The UX team put together some layover comparisons. The yellow would indicate what they wanted to test within our site design.
Navigation Placement
Promotions
Hero Image
Deal of the Day
Ui Research
Our team identified trends such as larger, borderless images, increased imagery usage over text, and more refined navigation to create a modern, visually engaging homepage.
Some UX Analysis
After doing some click analysis UX Team puts together a quick concept utilizing current branding with some slight modifications for some quick tests.
We found that on the current site the clicks drastically fell off after the main hero image. We the new design, the clicks still fell off but we see more of an expected funnel indicating users would find interests sooner.
Website Banner Comparisons
My team and I identified the need to revamp the existing banner designs, which followed strict guidelines regarding placement, size, color, and styling. To enhance performance and user engagement, we proposed and tested new banner concepts, incorporating lifestyle photography and contextual navigation links. This approach aimed to create a more engaging visual experience that aligned with user behavior and expectations.
Phase 2: Home Page UI Concept
Leveraging our research, I led the development of a new homepage design that eliminated rigid bounding containers and embraced overlapping elements to reflect Cabela’s premium brand positioning. Lifestyle photography and contextual navigation links were integrated into banners to provide more direct access to user interests. A/B testing validated these choices, doubling clicks and sales compared to traditional designs.
Phase 3: How the Collaboration Went
User Interface & Experience Testing
With the UI concept in place, my team collaborated with the UX team to implement a cohesive experience, testing the design with eye-tracking and moderated user interviews. This new layout focused on maintaining a user-friendly navigation bar that highlighted popular subcategories without overwhelming users.
Once the initial homepage design concept was developed, collaboration between the UI and UX teams became a critical focus. Clear divisions were established, with the UX team managing functionality and my team owning the overall look and feel. Building on the wireframe concept tested by the UX team, I refined and enhanced the visual design to create a cohesive, engaging user experience that aligned with Cabela’s brand identity and strategic goals.
The Final Outcome
In the end, despite organizational complexities, the different teams were able to work together and create an exceptional home page design. My refined visual styles and data-driven design improvements we utilized while working with the tested homepage wireframe. This final design had some changes to the user experience on the middle deals portion of the page.
This project underscored my ability to adapt, collaborate across diverse teams, and create meaningful design changes that improve both user engagement and brand impact.
