Earlier Work · 2017–2018
Kith Retail App
Kith's internal sales-floor app, tied to a 24% revenue lift
- Role
- Solo Experience Designer (external development)
- Timeline
- Jun 2017 – Jul 2018
- Stack
The problem
Kith salespeople work the floor carrying a walkie on the hip, an earpiece threaded under the shirt, and a mobile device with an IR scanner. On high-volume days the walkie channels jammed, and product requests to the stockroom runners got lost in the noise, slowing service exactly when speed mattered most. Kith had begun beta-testing an app to replace the walkie system, and as a daily user of the tool I took on directing its iterations toward what salespeople needed.
The approach
I interviewed every stakeholder, from runners to managers to fellow salespeople, and the answer came back unanimous: speed, minimalism, and precise product detail. I designed the next iteration around one central use case, requesting an item in three actions: scan, select size, send. A Guest Manager gives each customer their own tab, so a salesperson serving several clients keeps a high-level view of who's waiting on what, with colored status indicators (picking, waiting, received) carrying the tracking so on-screen interactions stay minimal. Product cards surface every variation, size conversions across US/UK/EU/CM, store and online availability, and common actions like 'Send to Register' and 'Display', so a salesperson can sell what's in stock or suggest an adjacent product without ever leaving the customer.
The hard parts
Designing for a crowded sales floor
Every screen had to survive a salesperson moving fast between customers. Capping the request flow at three actions, and letting colored indicators carry state instead of menus, kept the tool out of the way of the actual selling.
All the detail, none of the clutter
Closing a sale needs full variation data, sizes, live availability, adjacent inventory, while a runner needs only the request itself. The product card had to hold both depth and speed without overwhelming either reader.
User and designer at once
I was the tool's user before I was its designer, which meant separating my own habits from the floor's shared needs, gathering feedback from runners and managers, and translating it into recommendations the external development team could build.
Where it landed
The shipped app contributed to a 24% revenue increase by tightening real-time coordination between the sales floor and the stockroom, exactly the gap the redesign set out to close. The interactive prototype walked a footwear salesperson through a full shift, serving several customers at once, swapping in a missing display item, opening a new customer account, and sending an item straight to register. The roadmap pointed past the floor: mobile POS, CRM with direct messaging, an online catalogue with deliver-to-home, and in-store pickup.
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