Purple Innovation

MY ROLE

I built and led the 12 person UX Design, Research, and Strategy team at Purple. I led the foundational research and development of their customer journey, and iteratively addressed top customer issues while redesigning the site. I was also responsible for the design and testing of the physical product touch-points and interfaces.

UNDERSTANDING THE PURCHASE JOURNEY

My first task at Purple was to establish who our customers were and what their complete mattress journey looked like, from initial brand awareness through to final disposal.

We began by conducting large scale surveys of our customers' demographics and preferences in order to establish some statistical baselines.

Then we conducted dozens of shop-alongs and pre and post-purchase interviews both with mattress customers who ended up buying from Purple and those who did not, so that we could capture the highs and lows throughout the journey.

Our final journey map captured in detail the steps consumers generally took when purchasing a mattress and helped us build consensus within the company on key strategic problem areas.

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FOCUSING ON FRICTION

We found that consumers did not understand what made Purple mattresses different from other mattresses or which of Purple's mattresses would best fit their particular needs. Confusion in either area often led our prospective customers to buy from competitors.

We conducted focused multi-modal research (interviews, analytics, competitor audits, contact center call listening) to more thoroughly understand the specific causes of the confusion our customers experienced while shopping for our mattresses on our website, in our stores, and over the phone.

We found that Purple's completely unique grid material was creating challenges for consumers because it was not obvious what it felt like to sleep on, or how it compared to other mattress materials on the market.

It was also unclear to them how the different thicknesses of Purple grid in our mattress line translated into terms that they were used to such as "firm/soft" or " for back/side sleepers".

Here are some select clips from our research highlighting how confused and frustrated consumers were when we started:

SHOWING HOW IT FEELS

The Purple grid material is super strange but also super comfortable. Most consumers just assumed it was a kind of foam with holes in it, so we built more immersive experiences online to help them see how unique it was.

We added videos, and animations of people pressing our mattresses (without covers) throughout the site to ensure our customers could get a feel for what we offered.

HELPING USERS CHOOSE

Next we helped users understand the differences within our product line, which is mostly differentiated by the thickness of the grid material on the top of the mattresses.

Our solution drove 68% more traffic to our product pages.

Our biggest challenge was that, by design, the Purple grid was both firm and soft at the same time depending how much force was applied to a given spot on the mattress.

As a result we faced a lot of internal resistance to using the terms "firm" or "soft" that we knew customers were expecting, so we had to find another way.

We built and tested hundreds of ways of communicating the differences between our mattresses to find one that worked.

We used a combination user interviews, A/B testing, and multi-armed bandit testing to identify the optimal designs.

Our final solution relied on descriptive bars that allowed easy visual comparison of our mattresses.

This design proved very successful and increased click through rates by 68%.

ELEVATING THE BRAND

Purple started as a Kickstarter project that was characterized by its goofy videos. While that identity helped get it off the ground, it hindered its competitiveness against more established and premium brands.

We took on a complete visual redesign.

Throughout the design process we considered how Purple could retain its core light-hearted attitude while elevating its brand into the premium mattress market.

Here are some of the concepts we came up with:

We also built out a style guide and Figma design system for the new identity.

PURPLE HARDWARE INTERFACE DESIGN

There were a few projects at Purple that had an app and/or remote control associated with them. My team and I led the designs of these experiences. Unfortunately they never shipped so some details are censored in the following examples.

One of the products was an advanced mattress and bed frame with a number of complex customizations, including settings for inclination, temperature, airflow, and firmness for each side of the bed.

It also had automations that included things like:

Using mattress temperature, head position, or firmness to wake up gently in the morning.
Temporary settings to help you fall asleep that could then re-adjust to help keep you asleep.
The ability to track sleeping positions and nudge you into a better long term sleeping position.
Tracking sleep quality, length, and sleeping positions to help you fine tune your sleep over time.

We built hundreds of prototypes of both an app and a remote control to give users a simple way to control all this.

We had fun playing with a premium-feeling purple design theme that also invoked calm.

MATTRESS UNBOXING IMPROVEMENTS

Our research found that unboxing a Purple mattress could be a real pain. We identified customers top issues and designed improvements to address them.

Users generally didn't find the unboxing instructions as they were loose in the enormous mattress bag, and even when they did they were not clearly labeled and thus tossed aside.

It was not clear to users what the included cutting tool was to be used for, and as a result many users damaged their mattresses with it.

The mattresses are also incredibly heavy and the outer cover only had one rather weak handle, making it hard for two people to carry.

The heaviness of the mattress also made it hard to re-orient once opened and the packaging gave no clues as to which way was up.

To address these issues we designed:

A better outer bag that was easier to cut open (and cheaper to produce) with two strong handles in better places, as well as an obvious pocket for the instruction guide and cutter.
An improved instruction guide that referred users to a video tutorial and also included clear step-by-step instructions.
New mattress wrap material that indicated which way was up.