DISCOVERY
Spyder is one of the most iconic brands in skiing, over the last 30+ years, they’ve stayed true to their roots and focused on offering downhill skiers the best apparel available. As snowsports enthusiasts bringing a strong history with retail and outdoor-industry clients to the table, we were really excited to partner with Spyder to design and develop their new site.
We kicked things off by sending a team to Spyder’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado for a face-to-face discovery meeting where we were able to connect with people behind the brand, see their product design process first-hand and learn what was and wasn’t working for them.
As is usually the case with retail clients, their primary concern was an intuitive way for the user to filter through their product line. They also wanted a way to keep things fresh, without requiring a lot time creating and managing content. They also provided us with some great demographic info and analytics info from their existing site to help inform our strategy for the redesign.
CONCEPTING & WIREFRAMES
Step two was to take the information gathered during the discovery, along with our own research, and work out our initial concepts. We then provided a few different homepage possibilities with various takes on art direction and UI solutions. After reviewing things internally and with the client, a clear direction was chosen, which led us to wireframes and mapping out the site architecture.
Screenshots from the first round of design concepts.
Wireframes and spreadsheets mapping out the site’s architecture.
SOLUTIONS
Improving the user experience over the previous site was a huge concern for Spyder. Our goal was to keep things simple and smart, and truly tailor the site to the needs of the client and their customers. This project offered the opportunity to deliver some new solutions to Spyder that made things easier for both them and their customers.
SOCIAL CONTENT FROM ATHLETES
One of Spyder’s biggest strengths is their roster of athletes. It’s a diverse group of some of the best skiers on the planet, each one with a unique style, specializing in their own niche of the sport. We chose to leverage this on the homepage by aggregating not only Spyder’s company news into the homepage, but also Tweets and Facebook updates from their athletes. This adds diversity to the homepage and instantly boosts the amount of fresh content on the site.
PRODUCT NAVIGATION
Spyder offers a large array of product with multiple categories, designed for different types of skiers, of all ages and genders. We designed a large, highly visual dropdown navigation to make it intuitive for users to find exactly what they’re looking for, as quickly as possible.
PRODUCT FILTER
Spyder offers a vast amount of product styles and SKUs. We streamlined the sorting and shopping experience through the use of a responsive live product filter. The product filter allows the user to instantly find their appropriate size, color and style all within a specific product with ease.
MERCHANDISING
We wanted to create a site that tied the product together and allowed the client to merchandise appropriately. We created templates for a series of touts on the homepage that let the client showcase products to drive traffic. Once on a product detail page, the site dynamically offers coordinating products to match the skier type and colors. A similar system is used on athlete profile pages, showcasing and linking to an athlete’s favorite products.
EFFICIENT UI
To maximize efficiency for the user, we created a flyout navigation menu that docks to the lower left corner of the screen once the user scrolls below the main header. Unobtrusive but always available, the user can navigate anywhere on the site without scrolling to the top of the page.
SUGGESTED PRODUCT
To help the user put together a complete outfit, we introduced an area within all of the product detail pages that dynamically merchandises items based on color, style, fit and most importantly attitude.
RESULTS
We delivered a platform for Spyder to effectively showcase their brand and their product to their customers. Users can easily navigate through product, find coordinating pieces and quickly purchase through online dealers, or find a local brick & mortar store. We were able to leverage the social media content from both Spyder and their athletes to better connect with users and tell the brand story in a compelling way. The folks at Spyder were great to work with and we look forward to continuing our partnership in the future.
