Macy’s Virtual Agent
In June 2019, I led a design update of Macy’s customer service Virtual Agent (VA). At the time customers commonly engaged with the VA to check the status of their orders, yet many were unable to successfully do so. I worked with product and engineering partners to reduce the number of steps and cognitive effort required for getting order status information from the VA.
The Current Experience
The VA was only available on the Macy’s website, not yet on the app
Required multiple steps to start chatting with the VA
Customers couldn’t link their accounts to the VA, causing them to manually enter more information in order to get help
Design Goals
Improve our customer’s experience using the virtual agent on the Macy’s website by…
🔍 Making orders easier to find and read
⏭ Reducing steps to enter chat, ask a question
🤖 Providing more personalized help
My team
My Role
Partnered with another junior designer to conduct brainstorm sessions with product and engineering partners
Updated Macy’s chatbot patterns
Created and presented prototypes / animations with PDM to UX, engineering and product leadership
My design improvements
Starting a chat
Removing the form in the beginning and including a sign in option made it easier for customers to start chatting with the VA and get personalized help.
Before
After
Before
After
Finding an order
Rather than having to search their email or order history, signed-in customers can access their most recent orders directly in the VA.
Checking the status
Showing item thumbnails, and emphasizing shipment status with visual hierarchy will help customers identify when their items will arrive.
Before
After