Overview
John Lewis ⎯ Email Pattern Library
John Lewis, a renowned UK-based retailer, faced significant challenges in managing their promotional and service emails. The process was time-consuming, lacked consistency, and struggled with inefficiencies in design and coding. This case study explores the implementation of the John Lewis Email Pattern Library, which revolutionized their email production process, leading to a remarkable 60% reduction in effort for redesigns and ensuring consistency across teams.
Year
2017
My Role
As the Lead UI Designer and Developer, my role encompassed collaboration, research, development, and quality assurance of code. I worked in close partnership with Salesforce to integrate templates and patterns essential for service and promotional email communications. Additionally, I mentored junior team members, imparting best practices in our field.
Tools used
Identifying Challenges
The Underlying Problem
Fragmented Communication
Disparate communication between designers, developers, and marketing teams led to misalignments and inefficiencies, affecting the overall quality and effectiveness of email campaigns.
Inconsistent Brand Representation
Without a unified design approach, emails varied significantly in appearance, impacting brand recognition and customer trust.Prolonged Email Production Cycle The segmented workflow caused delays in producing emails, hindering the ability to respond quickly to market trends and customer needs.
Limited Scalability
The existing process was not scalable, making it challenging to adapt to increasing demands or to incorporate new design trends.High Resource Utilization A considerable amount of resources, including time and personnel, were required for the creation and revision of each email, leading to increased costs.
High Resource Utilization
A considerable amount of resources, including time and personnel, were required for the creation and revision of each email, leading to increased costs.
The Goals
We start with our principle goals of focus.
Streamlining Email Creation Process
The primary goal was to develop a more efficient workflow for email design and development, reducing time and resource consumption.
Achieving Brand Consistency
A key objective was to establish a standardized design approach to ensure consistent brand representation across all email communications.
Enhancing Responsiveness
Improving the team's ability to quickly adapt and update email designs to keep up with market trends and customer feedback.
Scaling with Demand
Creating a system that could easily adapt to growing demands and incorporate new design elements as needed.
Reducing Resource Overheads
Minimizing the use of resources, particularly time and manpower, in the email creation process to optimize costs.
Competitor Analysis
Exploring Competitors Patterns
& Components
& Components
A comprehensive analysis was undertaken to identify key issues in the existing process. This involved soliciting feedback from various stakeholders, including designers, developers, and marketing teams. A competitor analysis was also conducted to understand industry best practices. The research underscored the need for a unified design language and reusable code components.
Wireframing
Low-fidelity wireframing
Initial wireframes were designed to conceptualise the layout of the pattern library. These wireframes provided a visual blueprint for the email templates and individual components, highlighting key components such as headers, footers, body content, and call-to-action buttons.
The Visuals
FInal Pattern Library
The Email Pattern Library encompassed:
Standardized design elements consistent with John Lewis's brand identity.Responsive templates for cross-device compatibility. Modular components for flexibility in design.Reusable code snippets to reduce development time.
Standardized design elements consistent with John Lewis's brand identity.Responsive templates for cross-device compatibility. Modular components for flexibility in design.Reusable code snippets to reduce development time.
Streamlining Email Creation Process
The primary goal was to develop a more efficient workflow for email design and development, reducing time and resource consumption.
Achieving Brand Consistency
A key objective was to establish a standardized design approach to ensure consistent brand representation across all email communications.
Enhancing Responsiveness
Improving the team's ability to quickly adapt and update email designs to keep up with market trends and customer feedback.
Scaling with Demand
Creating a system that could easily adapt to growing demands and incorporate new design elements as needed.
Reducing Resource Overheads
Minimizing the use of resources, particularly time and manpower, in the email creation process to optimize costs.
The results
The results of the email pattern library
The Email Pattern Library included standardized design elements consistent with John Lewis's brand, responsive templates for cross-device compatibility, modular components for design flexibility, and reusable code snippets for faster development. It proved to be a valuable resource, enhancing their email design process and ensuring consistency in email marketing.
Increased Efficiency
The primary goal was to develop a more efficient workflow for email design and development, reducing time and resource consumption.
Brand Consistency
Redesigning emails became 60% more efficient, significantly reducing turnaround times.
Agile Response
Improving the team's ability to quickly adapt and update email designs to keep up with market trends and customer feedback.
Scalable Solutions
The system could easily accommodate growing demands and new design trends.
Resource Optimization
Reduced resource utilization led to cost savings and more effective use of manpower.
Reduced development bugs
Having pre coded and Qa’ed components reduced the possibibily of issues with the code and reduced the testing expenditure during campaign launces,
Conclusion
The Outcome
The John Lewis Email Pattern Library marked a transformative step in how promotional and service emails were designed and developed. By standardizing design components and integrating pre-built code snippets, the library not only enhanced operational efficiency but also ensured brand consistency. This strategic move saved considerable time and resources, setting a new benchmark for email campaign management in the retail industry.
Thank you For reading
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