Elastic Path • 2025 • shipped
Helping enterprise merchandisers manage 50,000+ product categories in an interface that matches how they think.
TIMEFRAME
2025 • 12 weeks
ROLE
UX Research • UX Design
DOMAIN
Enterprise E-Commerce
TEAM
Product Manager • Engineers • Design System Team • CX
TOOLS
Figma • FigJam • Support Tickets • Session Recordings
What's Elastic Path?
An enterprise e-commerce platform. Its product hierarchies interface is where merchandisers organize the categories that power storefront navigation, search, and promotions.
What was the problem?
Merchandisers were losing 8+ hours a week to a fragmented category workflow with no state management. The business hypothesis was to simply add search. Research showed the whole workflow needed rethinking.
What was my impact?
40% less time on category tasks. 67% fewer category support tickets. 75% more users working directly in the interface within 30 days. New design patterns reused across 4 product areas.
The Problem
Managing product categories meant hours of manual work across a stateless, fragmented interface. One misstep, and merchandisers had to start all over again.
No state management — one wrong move meant starting over.
A fragmented workflow, with context lost across every screen.
how might we
How might we let merchandisers manage categories the way they already think — in spreadsheets — while scaling from 50 to 50,000 categories without losing context?
Solution
We unified the fragmented flow into one workflow with two views — built around the spreadsheet mental model merchandisers already have. Search became a feature of the redesign, not a patch over it.
01
One unified workflow — no more lost context
Every category task now lives in a single flow with state preserved end to end. Merchandisers never lose work between steps, and never have to remember complex hierarchy information.
02
A table view that matches the spreadsheet mental model
Merchandisers think in spreadsheets — many exported to Excel just to work. The table view brings that mental model into the product, with bulk editing built in.
03
A tree view — multiple category trees at once
The tree view shows hierarchy structure at a glance and lets merchandisers work across category trees side by side — the single most requested capability in testing.
04
Search that's a feature, not a band-aid
The original brief was to just add search. We challenged that with data, then designed search into the unified workflow — scoped so it wouldn't need redesigning in six months.
05
For all of the above to work — built to perform at 50 or 50,000 categories
New components built in collaboration with the design system and dev teams, with lazy-loading thresholds and a caching strategy so the interface stays fast at enterprise scale.
Research
Why were merchandisers struggling — and would search alone fix it? We went to the evidence before touching the interface.
17 support tickets, 8+ hours of user session recordings, 4 remote customer interviews with contextual inquiry, and 3 cross-functional interviews gave us the answers.
primary users
Merchandisers were the primary users — and the most frustrated.
"Seeing multiple category trees at once would save us so much more time."
Finding 1 → Stateless UI
One wrong move meant starting over
No state management anywhere in the flow — errors were expensive, so merchandisers avoided the interface.
Finding 2 → Mental models
Merchandisers think in spreadsheets. The interface didn't.
The real workflow lived in exported spreadsheets — the product had to meet users where they already worked.
Finding 3 → Fragmented workflow
Category tasks were scattered across screens
Context was lost at every hop, forcing users to remember complex hierarchy information between screens.
A research findings workshop turned evidence into direction — and challenged the brief head-on: "If we only add search now, will we still need to redesign this in 6 months?"
Research findings workshop where we proposed the redesign to stakeholders and cross-functional partners.
The revamped user journey we aligned on before designing any screens.
design principles
The business wanted retention, acquisition, and a modern interface. Research translated those goals into three principles that guided every design decision.
Design to match mental models
Merchandisers think in spreadsheets — match how they already think instead of retraining them.
Modernize for scale and usability
Every solution must work for 50 or 50,000 categories.
Preserve context everywhere
Never make the user remember complex information.
testing
7 rounds of usability testing: 100% task completion, and users found new categories on the first try — in both views.
4 tests with internal users in Sales and CX, then 3 with customers. Time spent on category tasks dropped 40%. Ease of performing tasks rated 4/5, design elements 5/5, content 4/5.
impact
Within 30 days of launch, 75% more users were working directly in the interface — and category support tickets dropped by 67%.
75%
more users working directly in the interface within 30 days.
67%
reduction in category-related support tickets.
3
new customers acquired post redesign.
4
other product areas now use the new design system patterns.
Reflection
The most valuable thing I did was challenge the brief — with data, not opinion.
When business goals overpower user goals, rely on data — it's what turned "just add search" into a redesign worth shipping. Innovation over utility is a fine line to tread: the spreadsheet view won because it was familiar, not flashy. And content is a design material, not a finishing touch.