Screen of Mailchimp Developer homepage

YETI

Creating a compelling retail experience that seamlessly weaves the story of the products and the people who use it.

Problem

YETI is known for making bear-proof, indestructible coolers for outdoor enthusiasts. What began as a passion project by two brothers in search of higher quality coolers to accompany their adventures, grew to become a $450 million enterprise.

They approached Hard Candy Shell to help elevate their online retail experience to match the quality of their products.

one-of-a-kind retail experience

Designing a unique product page

The flagship product page showcases the coolers and its function while giving the customer easy access to information and, of course, the buy button. A few elements the team gave extra attention to: 
  • Navigate by cooler size
    Designed a sub-nav for easy navigation to other cooler sizes. This makes size comparison more efficient.
  • Editorialized product images
    The color of a cooler is not usually chosen for its aesthetics alone. A white cooler is for an activity like fishing as it deflects heat, while a tan colored cooler is used for hunting  to better blend in with its environment. When a customer chooses the color of the cooler, the photos reflect the appropriate activities.
  • Visualizing capacity
    It's hard to visualize the size of products online, harder still is to visualize capacity. Along with dimensions of the cooler, a customer can see how many cans of beer or pounds of ice fit into the cooler.
  • Cooler feature explorer
    To fully appreciate the engineering of the cooler, the team implemented an explorer tool that calls out features that make this cooler unique.
Yeti product landing pageSpecific product landing page
YETI Tundra landing and detail pages.
illustration of product dimensions
Dimensions of a cooler and a visualization of its capacity.
product feature explorer
Dive into the details of the cooler's features.

the human element

Setting the stage for stories

At the center of the company's brand was its community of outdoor enthusiasts. The company invested in producing beautiful yet thrilling stories of this community and their passions.

A big part of the story page was dedicated to showcasing the striking imagery from these productions, whether it be photos or videos.
landing page for stories
Story page hero video component
big image of a man rowing as the header of a story page
Story page hero with photo component.
cross-section of a page with an image and a quote
Impactful pull-quotes against imagery.

weaving product and stories

Building a modular system

In order to cross-pollinate products and content, I designed a set of building blocks that can live everywhere on the site.

When the customer shops for a cooler, not only can they be informed but they can also be inspired by stories of people using this product.

In story pages, readers can learn more about the subject's preferred YETI products.
modules of content in a grid
Sampling of modules
example of how cross-sell modules exist across the experience
Product page with story module.
example of how cross-sell modules exist across the experience
Story page with product modules.

final thoughts

The team worked closely with the client throughout the project. We even traveled to their headquarters in Austin, TX to attend their annual brand summit where the team and I were able to immerse ourselves in all things YETI. This level of access allowed me to easily interview various stakeholders and teams to better solve for the problem at hand.

The result of this work provided space to house and showcase content that ultimately converted views to purchases, all while highlighting the quality of products.

role & Team

Senior Designer

Team included creative director, UX designer, front-end engineer, and project manager.

---
Project completed in 2016 at Hard Candy Shell.