Australian jewellery brand Michael Hill set out their 2030 sustainability roadmap to guide and inspire the industry towards a better future. This brought the opportunity to create a gold recycle program and extend the product lifecycle of gold jewellery. Re:cycle is the first of many digital led initiatives for Michael Hill.
Michael Hill were set to introduce a new gold recycling service and wanted our help to develop and launch the new omni-channel experience.
With a separately managed ecommerce site, the decision was pre-defined to go in the direction of a new site as their primary channel for the new service. This platform would allow the customer to control the experience and recycle their preloved gold all from the tips of their fingers on a smartphone.
The project began with discovery workshops with key stakeholders from Michael Hill. The workshops were designed to facilitate a collaborative and inclusive approach to gaining a shared understanding of project goals, objectives, potential constraints and to map out the ideal user journey for the new gold recycling program.
Without an established comparable service in Australia, we started with determining the target audience for Michael Hill's gold recycle service. Our approach involved a proto-persona workshop to identify the types of people likely to utilise the service and what current tasks, tools and technology they are currently using. We established three distinct proto-personas.
Following our discovery research and conducting contextual inquiries into similar services, we synthesised our findings and were able to identify some key pain points and needs when on-selling jewellery. These exercises formed a great foundation to move into developing low-fidelity prototypes to then test with potential users.
By conducting three rounds of usability testing on a prototype, we examined and addressed key user concerns. This iterative process allowed us to gather valuable feedback and insights, enabling us to continuously refine the solution. Through each round, we carefully observed how user interacted with the prototype, paying close attention to their actions, feedback and overall experience.
Through our user-centred approach, we ensured that the final design was not only visually appealing but also intuitive, seamless, and aligned with expectations of users and the business. Iterative refinement played a pivotal role in identifying and resolving key user concerns, ultimately leading to a solution that felt premium and purposeful.
