Stakeholder Requirements
PM
Prioritize paid partnersEnsure partner brands receiving paid placement are given appropriate visibility within the shopping experience.
Partnerships
Featured has to stand outMake sponsored and featured offers visible enough that merchants see clear value from their partnership investment.
Merchandising
Offers need a rotating surfaceEnable the merchandising team to highlight and update offers as promotions and business priorities change.
Understanding the Existing Experience
Members reach gift cards through Membership Rewards, not as a first stop. This is the existing app architecture.
Homepage
Balance
Pay
Transfer
Send
Recent activity
Membership
Redeem Rewards
Rewards Summary
Explore Benefits
Refer a Friend
Gift Cards
Gift card listing
Gift cards list
Redesigned in
checkout case study
Select a card
Amex Gold
Amex Silver
Amex Platinum
Amex Blue
Verify card
CVV
Shipping method
Standard
Express
Pickup
Order summary
Gift card
Points
Total
Confirmation
Order confirmed
User Research & Insights
We took the business ask for featured placements and promotions, then tested whether the existing catalog could support them — and whether members could find a gift card at all. Two methods, in that order.
Step 1
Heuristic evaluation
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Findability Fail
Can someone land on a known brand without reading every row?
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Scannability Fail
Does the catalog parse in chunks, or only as one long serial list?
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Visual hierarchy Fail
Do featured partners and offers look different from the rest?
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Hick’s law Fail
Are there too many equal choices for the eye to compare?
Step 2
Moderated usability
We conducted task-based usability sessions with 6–8 members using the existing experience. We observed where they hesitated, how they navigated and scrolled, whether they abandoned tasks, and what they said while exploring the page.
Task 1 · Known-item discovery
Find a brand you already want
What we observed
- Most participants started at the top and scanned brand names row by row.
- Without search or filters, scrolling was the only way to locate a specific brand.
- Some participants overshot their target or asked whether a search option was available.
What members said
- “I just have to keep scrolling until I see it.”
- “There’s no search, so I’m reading every row.”
Task 2 · Exploratory discovery
Browse without a destination
What we observed
- Participants struggled to identify where to start when they didn’t have a specific brand in mind.
- Several scrolled through the catalog looking for recognizable groupings, such as dining, travel, or retail.
- Without categories or filters, browsing largely became scanning through more brands.
What members said
- “If I wanted dinner, I wouldn’t know which of these is food.”
- “I don’t even know where to start if I’m just looking.”
Task 3 · Featured content and offers
Identify featured brands and promotions
What we observed
- Participants had difficulty distinguishing featured brands and promotional offers from standard gift cards.
- The similar visual treatment across listings made it difficult to recognize which brands or offers were being highlighted.
- The placement of a brand near the top of the list was sometimes mistaken for a featured position.
What members said
- “They all look the same.”
- “I wouldn’t have known anything was featured.”
The Catalog in the Redemption Journey
Homepage
Membership
Gift Cards
Select Gift Card
Purchase
Happy
Neutral
Unhappy
Experience
- Checks balance, pay, transfer, and send
- Scans recent activity
- Sees Membership Rewards points
- Redeem Rewards, Rewards Summary, Explore Benefits banner, Refer a Friend
- Scrolls a single list of brands
- Has to scan every brand to find a relevant card
- Picks a brand from the list
- Enters points / amount and adds to cart
- Completes the redemption
Expectations
- A familiar home with a clear path into rewards
- Points and Redeem Rewards are easy to find
- Easy browsing, with featured offers standing out
- Can find a relevant brand quickly
- Straightforward completion
Defining the Opportunity
How might we help members quickly find a brand they already have in mind, confidently explore options
when they’re unsure where to start, and easily distinguish featured offers from the rest of the catalog?
Rethinking the Card Discovery
Let’s start by seeing what competitors are doing with the gift card listing — Chase and Bank of America both treat discovery as a catalog, with search, filters, and a way to tell featured or categorized cards apart from the rest.
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Gift Cards
Results for Gift Cards (94)
Most PopularMost ViewedNewest
Amazon.com Gift Card
Bath & Body Works® Gift Card9:41
Gift Cards
Results for Gift Cards (94)
Most PopularMost ViewedNewest
Amazon.com Gift CardBath & Body Works® Gift CardSketching Early Concepts
I explored a few listing directions to test known-item search, exploratory browsing, and how featured offers could sit apart from the rest of the catalog.
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1
Search. Members who already knew the brand they wanted were scanning row by row to find it. Search provides a faster path for known-item finding without relying on scrolling.
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2
Sale and Digital. Sale surfaces promotional offers, while Digital helps members narrow results by format. I intentionally avoided merchant categories in this concept to keep the focus on finding brands and featured offers rather than browsing by category. All remains selected by default so members start with the full catalog.
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3
Featured. Stakeholders wanted paid placements to stand apart from the rest of the catalog. A dedicated featured row creates a distinct destination for partner inventory instead of blending it into the standard listings.
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4
All brands. The remaining catalog lives in a uniform grid, creating a predictable browsing experience while helping Featured stand out as a separate merchandising surface.
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1
Search. Even in a browse-first experience, members who know what they want need a fast path to a specific brand.
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2
Category chips. Dining, Travel, and Shopping reflect the mental groupings members looked for when they weren’t searching for a specific brand. All provides an overview, while the chips help members narrow the catalog before committing to a category.
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3
Featured. Featured offers still need a dedicated placement. Keeping them in a horizontal row lets them stand out while remaining part of the overall browsing experience.
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4
Category rows and See all. Instead of browsing one mixed catalog, members can explore in smaller, more meaningful groups. See all provides a path to deeper exploration when the preview isn’t enough.
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1
Search. This concept prioritizes known-item finding. Members who already know the brand they want can search immediately instead of scanning through the catalog.
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2
Featured carousel. Featured offers become the primary focal point rather than competing with a grid of equally weighted brands. Showing one card at a time gives partner placements greater visibility while signaling there is more to explore.
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3
All brands. A simple alphabetical list supports members who recognize a brand name when they see it or prefer browsing through the catalog directly.
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4
A–Z index. The index provides a quick way to jump through a large catalog without scrolling through every brand.
Early Feedback from the Design Team
I reviewed the three concepts with the design team before moving into high-fidelity designs. Their feedback helped validate which concepts best addressed the user needs uncovered in research while also meeting stakeholder expectations.
Lena Park
Product designer
“Concept 1 works well when I already know the brand I’m looking for. In Concept 2, I’m forced to think about categories first, which isn’t how everyone shops.”
Why it matteredThis reinforced that users arrive with different intentions. Some know exactly which brand they want, while others are still browsing. The final direction needed to support both behaviors without forcing members into a category-first experience.
Noah Brooks
Design lead
“Featured feels more intentional in Concept 3. In the other concepts, it looks too similar to the rest of the catalog and doesn’t feel like a dedicated placement.”
Why it matteredThis aligned with stakeholder goals around partner visibility. The final designs preserved a dedicated Featured section instead of treating featured offers as just another category row.
Aisha Rahman
UX researcher
“Not everyone arrives knowing exactly what they’re looking for. Categories provide a starting point and reduce the effort of scanning an entire catalog before making a decision.”
Why it matteredResearch showed that while some members came looking for a specific brand, others were still exploring options. Organizing gift cards into familiar categories helps people narrow choices faster and lowers the cognitive effort required to browse a large catalog.
Sam Ortiz
Visual designer
“Concept 2 makes browsing easier because the categories give me somewhere to start. Without them, the catalog feels like a long list of brands.”
Why it matteredThis validated the need for category-based browsing alongside brand search, helping members discover gift cards even when they didn’t have a specific brand in mind.
Narrowing to Two Options
I took the design team’s notes and moved two directions into high fidelity — concept 3 with sale called out on the cards, and concept 1 with format filters and categories under Featured.
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
Featured
All brands
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
Featured
All brands
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
Sale
Digital
Physical
Featured Gift Cards
See allDining Gift Cards
See allRetail Gift Cards
See allBarrelCrate & Barrel
Air & Lodging
See allExperiences
See allAmerican Express Gift Cards
See allCar & Rail
See all
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
Sale
Digital
Physical
Featured Gift Cards
See allDining Gift Cards
See allRetail Gift Cards
See allBarrelCrate & Barrel
Air & Lodging
See allExperiences
See allAmerican Express Gift Cards
See allCar & Rail
See allGathering Feedback from Stakeholders and Users
From stakeholders I wanted to understand
- Which option better supports the visibility of featured partner placements.
- Whether promotional offers felt sufficiently discoverable.
- How well each option balanced business priorities with the overall shopping experience.
Responses
PM
“Featured finally isn’t a label on a card that looks like every other card. Option 1 gives us a placement we can actually use.”
What it showedOption 1 best addressed the need for a dedicated featured placement.
Partnerships
“If I were talking to a merchant, I’d show them Option 1. The featured placement feels different from the rest of the catalog.”
What it showedOption 1 made the value of paid placement more visible.
Merchandising
“I like that promotions are visible directly on the cards in Option 1. It feels easier to manage than creating another promotional section.”
What it showedOption 1 supported promotional visibility without adding additional browse paths.
From users I wanted to understand
- How easily members could find a brand they already had in mind.
- Whether members could browse confidently when they didn’t know what gift card they wanted.
- If featured offers and promotions were noticeable without additional explanation.
Responses
Known-item
“I searched for Amazon and found it right away.”
What it showedOption 1 performed well for users who already knew which brand they wanted.
Exploratory
“If I wanted something for dinner, I’d start with Dining. It gives me somewhere to begin.”
What it showedOption 2 reduced the effort of browsing by organizing brands into familiar categories.
Featured and offers
“The featured section stood out immediately.”
What it showedUsers easily identified featured content in Option 1.
Catalog structure
“I liked that I could tell how the gift cards were organized right away. I didn’t have to figure the page out first.”
What it showedGrouping brands into categories helped users understand the catalog structure more quickly.
Choice overload
“Seeing a smaller set of brands under a category felt less overwhelming than looking at everything at once.”
What it showedCategories reduced choice overload and made the catalog feel easier to navigate.
Final Direction
Option 2 performed better for exploratory browsing, while stakeholders preferred Option 1’s Featured treatment for its stronger partner visibility.
The final design combines Option 2’s category-based browsing with Option 1’s Featured experience.
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
Featured
Dining Gift Cards
See allRetail Gift Cards
See allBarrelCrate & Barrel
Air & Lodging
See allExperiences
See allAmerican Express Gift Cards
See allCar & Rail
See all9:41
Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
On sale
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
Dining Gift Cards
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
Featured
Dining Gift Cards
See allRetail Gift Cards
See allBarrelCrate & Barrel
Air & Lodging
See allExperiences
See allAmerican Express Gift Cards
See allCar & Rail
See all9:41
Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
On sale
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Gift Cards
Search by brand
SaleDigitalPhysical
Dining Gift Cards
Conclusion
The final design worked because it supported both known-item finding and exploratory browsing. Categories reduced choice overload, while a distinct Featured treatment improved visibility for offers and promotions.