Christie's
Mobile & Web – Lead UX Designer – Agency Work
I redesigned Christie’s mobile experience from browsing to purchasing and refreshed the web checkout process.
Background
Christie's had two outdated apps with limited browsing. My task was to bring feature parity to the website and add live bidding and purchasing.
Unify and Redesign.
I redesigned the app to ensure a seamless user experience across all channels. Additionally, I updated the app's appearance, giving it a modern look and enhancing its overall usability.
I interviewed field experts and client advisors to understand their needs and the needs of their clients – Many of Christie’s clients have their client advisor do most of the bidding work on their behalf.
Out of these conversations came these ”quality of life” features:
Convert currencies
Ability to leave notes on lots to share with clients
Request appraisal on a property
Personalize the experience based on interests
Review Christie’s digital catalogues
Sales and Lots
Christie’s sales are curated lists of art pieces called lots and based on a particular theme.
Diving into a particular lot, people can review its history and condition before placing a bid.
While working with Christie’s API, I noticed it was slow to respond (a typical API call took 10 to 20 seconds). After I brought this up, the team built a caching layer between Christie’s servers and the app that greatly improved the responsiveness of the app.
Realtime Bidding
Christie’s has multiple types of auctions that clients can bid in. Each had their own ways of doing things. In the app, I built the new UI so that all auction types share a same base experience of browsing, bidding and purchasing.
Checkout
I updated the checkout experience to follow e-commerce best practices whenever possible. Unique to Christie’s, winning bids must be paid for each auction and bidding channel separately.
As part of the checkout discovery, I built a service blueprint to capture all the touch points of the buying experience for different personas.
Launch and Beyond
In their 2014 annual report Christie’s acknowledged that the “re-launch of [their] iPad and iPhone app in April has given users a much richer Christie’s experience with many of [their] top lots viewed through the new app and users coming from 149 countries.” In 2019, there were $144 million worth of online transaction, with the biggest lot sold for $2 million.
Takeways
The redesign of Christie's mobile app has been a journey filled with valuable lessons and exciting challenges. Engaging with experts provided invaluable insights into enhancing the customer experience, guiding us toward meaningful improvements.
Overcoming the obstacle of legacy APIs proved to be an interesting challenge, requiring cross-collaboration and innovative solutions to ensure seamless integration and functionality.
Finally, modernizing the app while preserving Christie's iconic brand identity presented an exciting design challenge that was well received by customers.
