Problem
User-generated content like reviews plays a significant role in purchase confidence, yet the existing AE app product reviews experience was falling short. User research surfaced several recurring pain points: shoppers struggled to discover relevant reviews, lacked sufficient visual context to make informed decisions, and encountered friction throughout the review submission flow. These issues undermined trust and engagement with one of the app's most high-value content surfaces. The challenge was to close those experience gaps without disrupting familiar patterns or overwhelming users with complexity, while maintaining the new vendor API structure.
Strategy
Research findings were synthesized into clearly defined experience gaps and a set of guiding design principles centered on discoverability, visual richness, and submission ease. A competitive analysis was conducted in parallel, examining marketplace patterns and best-in-class reviews experiences across leading retail apps. This informed a strategic framework that identified which industry-standard features could be thoughtfully adapted to fit the AE mobile app ecosystem, ensuring the redesign felt both familiar to users and distinctly on-brand.
Design
The solution was developed through an iterative design process. Wireframing cycles explored multiple approaches to layout, content hierarchy, and interaction patterns before converging on a direction validated with design partners. Stakeholder reviews ensured alignment across product and engineering at key milestones. Final designs introduced enriched photo carousels to elevate visual content, an expanded review sheet design for improved readability, a fully native 'Write a Review' flow to reduce submission friction, and enhanced filtering and sorting controls to help users surface the most relevant content quickly. Cross-functional handoff documentation ensured design intent was clearly communicated and faithfully implemented.
Wireframe Examples (PW: 1234) Wireframe 1 | Wireframe 2
The redesigned Reviews experience delivered measurable improvements across engagement, submission rates, and satisfaction. Content discoverability increased as users were able to more easily surface relevant reviews & explore user submitted product photos, while the streamlined submission flow drove higher review completion rates. Overall satisfaction with the reviews feature improved, and secondary gains included increased time spent within the Reviews section and greater user confidence in purchase decision-making - contributing to downstream conversion goals and reinforcing the value of investing in user-centered content experiences.
Reduced interaction friction and improved content discoverability across the Reviews experience
Drove longer session engagement through clearer content hierarchy and more intuitive interactions
Increased Write a Review form submission rates with a streamlined, native submission flow
Enhanced accessibility and readability of review content across mobile devices
Supported higher app conversion by delivering a more trustworthy reviews experience at key purchase decision moments
