User Research & Competitive Analysis

Jimmy Jazz lacked a centralized location of all the new releases (the most vital aspect of the urban footwear industry/business) and users were not informed on these releases unless they went visited the website everyday and scrolled through all the New Release sliders on the homepage or were subscribed to the weekly release emails.

Sneakerheads are used to frequently visiting the Nike Release Calendar (or Nike app) for the hot new releases for their brand but Jimmy Jazz does not release every single new Nike/Air Jordan, so users were left in the dark. Using this knowledge, I created an experience similar to Nike’s Release Calendar (as well as other competitors such as Finish Line and Foot Locker) and customized it to Jimmy Jazz’s branding and user-base.

Approach & Usability

Using industry and user knowledge, I have come up with a solution of a dynamic calendar. Having a dynamic calendar would also reduce work and upkeep on the back-end. This Release Calendar has a main promotional banner of the Feature Release for that week with a countdown timer to initiate a sense of urgency and make customers anticipate the upcoming major release for that week. The calendar includes a “Dropped” and “Up Next”, featuring both recently released shoes, and those upcoming. Users are easily able to switch easily between both options and have the option to filter by the major new releases brands. Dropped displays in a descending order (backwards in time) and the Up Next shows the upcoming shoes in a ascending order, much like a calendar. Following the extremely strict rules of new shoe releases, anything past 7 days or above can only display a logo and no imagery of the product. Using a “View More” button allows for a long-scroll experience, still imitating a calendar, while also keeping in mind usability and page load speeds.