The problem: "Okay... How do I use this?"

Usage of rewards was low. Previous research had shown that:

• users had no idea how to use their offers online,
• staff was spending a lot of time helping customers with rewards in stores.

Design, test, iterate

• The Rewards page was a big source of confusion and frustration for users: it had a button to use the offer in store, but just text about how to use it online. I tested having a button to use in store, but participants were unsure what to expect when clicking the new button. I had to tweak the copy and the design of the confirmation message several times.
• Error messages: I mapped out error cases with Analyst and Architects. We realised there were more technical limitations and complex business rules than expected: offers that cannot be combined, maximum discount reached, etc. Providing precise error messages, like I had planned, would have impacted load times too much in the shopping bag. To balance that out, I made sure the process was forgiving (offers can be used again if they did not result in discounts).
• In store experience: Technical limitations kept piling up when we were exploring how to provide an easier experience in store. At some point, we had to acknowledge that we had scoped out so much of our solution that it was not solving any of users' problems anymore. So we made the decision to leave this out of the release. But we knew the systems would change soon, so that in the near future we could give it another go!

The brief from business stakeholders

H&M wanted to introduce a new benefit for members: monthly invoices with Klarna. My job was to find how to make that fit into the existing Pay later section under My Account, and to provide helpful reminders when time came to pay the invoices.

Design, test, iterate

• Finding and paying invoices: The biggest challenge was to fit everything into one page. My first idea was to provide two tabs: one for Pay in XX days, and the other one for Monthly invoices. But it became clear in user testing that the distinction between the two methods was irrelevant to users. What matters: what still needs to be paid, and what has already been paid.
• Notifications: To encourage customers to pay in time, from the H&M app (not from the Klarna app), it had been decided that we would send push notifications about due invoices. The problem? H&M already sent a lot of notifications! I tried to push to send less notifications overall, and to allow users to choose what types of messages to opt-in for. But I did not manage to get all stakeholders to agree in time for that release. We did however launch a wider initiative around the quality and quantity of our communications to customers. And for that release, I focused on highlighting things to pay within the interface instead, for instance through badges and an inbox for personal communications in My Account.