Cultivate PCG: Cultivating a Seamless Gifting Experience

How do you translate the elegance and personalization of in-person gifting into a seamless digital experience?

Role

UX/UI Designer

Industry

Corporate Gifting

Duration

'22

Context

In July 2022, I joined Cultivate in Boulder as their first and only UX designer. The company, with over a decade of experience in corporate gifting, sought to build an online solution similar to competitors like Loop & Tie, &open, and Snappy. My role was to redesign their existing platform, starting with creating a design system and improving key features.

The Problem

Cultivate PCG needed to streamline their Send a Gift Flow (SAGF) to compete with modern gifting platforms. The existing process was cumbersome and not user-friendly, potentially impacting user adoption and satisfaction.

My Role

As the sole UX designer, I was responsible for:

Creating a comprehensive design system
Redesigning the Send a Gift Flow
Improving contact management
Designing new features like gift scheduling and message customization
Redesigning the redemption website for web and mobile

Context

The Problem

My Role

As the sole UX designer, I was responsible for:

Creating a comprehensive design system
Redesigning the Send a Gift Flow
Improving contact management
Designing new features like gift scheduling and message customization
Redesigning the redemption website for web and mobile

The Process

Research and Analysis

Despite limited access to user data, I conducted:

Competitive analysis of platforms like Loop & Tie, &open, and Snappy
Internal stakeholder interviews with Sales and Client Success teams
Analysis of available data from Hotjar and Google Analytics

Design System Creation

I spent a month developing a design system that aligned with Cultivate PCG's marketing assets and guidelines, ensuring consistency across the platform.

Iterative Design

The 'Gifting Flow' redesign involved multiple iterations:

Streamlining the gift-sending steps
Improving contact management with bulk upload and manual entry options
Introducing gift scheduling functionality
Designing customizable messaging for gift emails and landing pages
Redesigning the redemption website for a seamless user experience

Key Features Developed

Contact Management Tool: Enabled uploading of up to 200 contacts via spreadsheet or manual entry
Gift Scheduling: Allowed users to plan and automate gift sending
Message Customization: Created tools for personalizing gift messages and landing pages
Redemption Website Redesign: Improved the e-commerce experience for gift recipients, including complex features like the "ticket program"

The Outcome

While quantitative data was limited due to my departure before long-term metrics could be gathered, the redesigned flow and new features significantly modernized Cultivate's offering. The improvements in user interface and functionality positioned the company to better compete with leading online gifting platforms.

Reflection

This project presented unique challenges, particularly the lack of direct user feedback and the need to balance stakeholder requests with best UX practices. In hindsight, advocating for more user research and usability testing could have provided valuable insights for feature prioritization and design decisions.

The experience of being the sole UX designer in a company transitioning to a digital-first approach was invaluable. It honed my skills in creating design systems, managing complex user flows, and balancing business needs with user experience.

Reflection

Other projects

Optimizing Code Distribution

How I eliminated a redundant internal tool and unified the on-site gifting workflow under one platform --> improving speed, reducing error, and making engineers (and event staff) happy.

Reimagining Corporate Gifting Flows

Streamlining the gifting user-flow

Lowkey Kanban

Work In Progress