UBC Merch Shop
UX DESIGN
UI DESIGN
Background
Following the redesign of the website, our team also worked on redesigning the organization’s online merchandise shop.
Working alongside 2 other designers and a team of 3 developers, we redesigned the UBC Science Undergraduate Society merchandise shop to create a more modern, cohesive, and student-friendly shopping experience.
This project also gave me exposure to consumer-focused UX design and introduced me to the considerations involved in designing digital shopping experiences.
The Challenge
The original merch shop lacked a cohesive visual identity and did not provide a strong shopping experience for students browsing products online.
Some key challenges included:
Inconsistent branding between the shop and main website
Limited product visibility and discoverability
Layouts that felt outdated and difficult to scan
Creating a storefront experience that still felt student-focused and approachable
Because the merch shop served both informational and transactional purposes, the experience needed to balance visual appeal with usability and simplicity.
Designing the Shopping Experience
A major focus of the redesign was improving how products were presented and discovered throughout the storefront.
Working collaboratively with the design team, we focused on:
Creating clearer product hierarchy
Improving browsing and navigation flows
Designing cleaner product cards and layouts
Maintaining visual consistency across pages
Aligning the shop with the updated SUS branding system
Compared to previous projects, this experience exposed me more directly to consumer-focused UX patterns and e-commerce design principles.
Collaboration & Handoff
Like the main SUS website project, collaboration played a major role throughout the process.
I worked closely with other designers to ensure:
Consistent design systems and components
Unified branding across the experience
Alignment between different page layouts and interactions
Once designs were finalized, we handed them off to a team of developers and continued iterating based on technical constraints, feedback, and implementation realities.
Reflection
This project gave me valuable exposure to consumer-focused and shop-based website design. Compared to more informational platforms, designing an online storefront required thinking more deeply about browsing behavior, product discoverability, visual hierarchy, and how users move through purchasing flows. I also learned how important branding consistency is in building trust within shopping experiences. Working closely with both designers and developers strengthened my collaboration and communication skills, especially when balancing visual design goals with technical constraints during implementation.
