Shutterfly
From Traditional E-comm Experience to Creation-Led Experience
I led the transformation of Shutterfly’s experience from a traditional e-commerce model to a creation-first platform. I defined a UX strategy that prioritized creation as the core journey, introducing faster entry points, AI-assisted tools, and moment-based navigation to better align with user intent. This shift streamlined the path from idea to product, creating a more intuitive, engaging experience while unlocking new opportunities for growth and retention.
Role: Head of UX Design, Research
for Shutterfly and Snapfish
Users want to create
Across multiple qualitative research methods—including co-creation sessions, dscout interviews, and in-depth one-on-one studies—we uncovered a critical insight: customers come to Shutterfly to create.
While seemingly obvious, this stood in stark contrast to an experience modeled on a traditional e-commerce funnel, where the primary interaction paradigm was browsing and buying.
As a result, many core journeys were unnecessarily long and misaligned with user intent. Reframing the experience around creation—rather than commerce—became a pivotal shift, influencing product strategy, UX design, and marketing to better support what customers were fundamentally trying to do: make something meaningful.
Shutterfly Design Targets
We moved beyond traditional personas to create Design Targets—a more actionable way to understand customer mindsets, motivations, and priorities.
Informed by both qualitative research (interviews, concept testing) and quantitative data (engagement and creation patterns), these targets revealed how different customers approach creation—from quick, low-effort outputs to more expressive, storytelling-driven experiences. This helped us define the creative paths we needed to unlock to support both existing users and new growth segments.
Ali - the Busy Supermom
Ali is a stretched-thin do-it-all mom trying to preserve family memories in the margins of her chaotic day.
Randy - Tech Dad
Randy is a busy, hands-on dad who values efficiency and teamwork. He prefers tools that save time, require little manual effort, and don't demand perfection.
Jae - Creative Pro
Jae is a creative modern maker who sees photo products as a form of personal artistry. A tech-savvy digital native, she loves the creative process.
Joan - Trad Superuser
Joan is a loyal, experienced Shutterfly user who makes photo books as a hobby for her family and friends with great care and creativity.
UX Vision Pillars
These UX vision pillars operationalized our experience strategy. They translated an abstract vision into a clear set of criteria that teams could use to make consistent, high-quality decisions across the customer journey. Ultimately, they helped shift the organization from shipping features to designing a cohesive product experience.
Homepage: The Front Door to Creation
As the highest-traffic surface on the site, the homepage serves as
the front door to nearly every creation journey.
We saw it as a critical opportunity to shift perception—from a traditional shopping experience to a
creation-first platform. The redesigned homepage was built to express our core experience pillars, guiding both new and returning users into meaningful starting points—whether that’s quickly creating from a photo, continuing a project, or finding inspiration through moments. By rethinking the homepage as an entry point into creation (not just browsing), we established a clearer, more intuitive path into the experiences that drive both engagement and growth.