Designing an end-to-end mobile experience with Screwfix

What our client wanted

  • user-centred website design to simplify the user journeys and increase conversion
  • A complete technical blueprint and graphic design for a mobile website that supported the way customers work on the go
  • To integrate a new “collection and delivery” service into the existing successful website design

The work

For the trade, being able to rely on a supplier is crucial for being able to get a job done. Screwfix’s loyal customers love the way the service is adapted to support their own business.

Simplifying Categorisation, Improving Navigation

Over time, the original website had evolved to reflect internal structures and jargon, more than how customers think. We invited customers from the trade and DIY enthusiasts to discuss how they would categorise products, using card sorting techniques.

The insight was invaluable, enabling the number of categories to drop from 32 to a more manageable 17, with sub categories labelled in terms customers identified with, resulting in easier navigation straight to the products customers want to buy.

Improving Checkout and Proving the Case For Click-And-Collect

Now that customers could find the products they were looking for, it was essential to ensure that they could get through the checkout. Screwfix worked with Bunnyfoot to optimise the designs by iterating from initialpaper prototypes through to fully interactive wireframes – with evidence coming from testing with real customers at each stage. The final designs were based on solid evidence that showed which of the multiple competing models of the purchase journey would be best, and what language and design would be the most effective and persuasive.

Testing early designs for the introduction of a “collect from store” service to the website provided strong evidence to break from (what was then) the traditional e-Commerce model. It proved that the investment in providing this service would result in a good ROI. Follow-up testing allowed us to refine the design to improve its clarity and efficiency.

Now, customers can put collection and delivery in one basket and check out in a single transaction, and 40% of business orders are made online for collection in-store.

End-To-End Mobile Development Using User-Centred Design Methodologies

Working with development partners for implementation, Bunnyfoot executed a full user-centred design of the Screwfix mobile experience.

This included:

  • Working to define the constraints and opportunities that the technology platform supported
  • Developing and testing initial concepts
  • Iterating from hand-drawn flows, through to clickable prototypes, and then full hi-fidelity prototypes
  • Testing with customers at each stage – this even involved us developing a new testing rig to support user testing (one that has been copied by many others)
  • Providing annotated specifications along with the prototype to support the technology team
Group of images showing the wireframes at different stages of design being tested with a participant on a mobile device.
Conducting mobile testing sessions with Screwfix

What we delivered

  • card sorting exercise helped simplify the website from 32 to a more manageable 17 intuitive categories
  • User testing of wireframes ensured that 100% of participants completed purchase journeys without issue before launch
  • We architected, wireframed, prototyped, user tested and graphically designed a complete mobile experience
  • Our process for Screwfix’s collection and delivery service outperformed every major competitor and accounted for 40% of their orders
  • Implementing user centred design methodologies have reduced development time and costs

User-centred design is like working off blueprints with an architect – it’s much easier to move a door while you are in the design phase than after the place is built!

Jamie Seedhouse
Website Development Manager, Screwfix

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