IKEA app, a shopping experience as engaging as the in-store
Overview
Our assignment—Helping make the world's largest furniture retailer accessible from the palm of your hand.
When I joined Work & Co, my responsibility was to improve the MVP with a 2.4-star rating based on customer feedback and business goals. The complete redesign of the app focused on consistency, simplicity, and ease of use.
I played a key role as one of two designers embedded into the IKEA app development team, working as one team with IKEA designers and supporting development through final testing and launch. Successfully scaled the product to over 40 markets worldwide, contributing to its global success.
We guided IKEA designers in evolving app designs and helped integrate a unified cross-channel design system.
Finding inspiration
The prior app lacked content, so a major goal was to introduce inspiring content, bringing IKEA's renowned catalog and in-store experience to life for digital users. This initiative aimed to reinforce IKEA's position as a leader in home furnishings, emphasizing inspirational home decor across a wide range of contexts.
To achieve this, we developed a completely new service for IKEA that allows customers to shop directly from images. Using AI, we tagged products in catalog-like imagery, enabling users to add items directly to their cart from the images. We also contributed to the development of an algorithm that refines inspiration recommendations over time, making them more personalized based on various factors such as room types, styles, colors, and more.
Ethical data usage
We were asked to create user-friendly design that improve data transparency and give customers control over how their data is collected, stored, and used. Now, customers can choose if and how the company uses their information, like their browsing history, purchases, and preferences, to provide personalized product recommendations in the app and on the website. To help users understand this better, we also used the familiar IKEA assembly character as a friendly guide.
Iterative process
Through extensive user testing, app store reviews and data analytics we continued to evolve the product to best serve the user while also meetings IKEA’s business goals. Taking the product from an MVP with with 2.4 star rating in the App store to a 4.8 rating within a year.
Evolution of search & browse
Evolution of the inspire page
Design system
Part of our daily workflow, we continuously improved the app's design system. This design system was later integrated into a comprehensive one named Skapa, serving as a single source of truth for global button styles, iconography, interaction patterns, and motion libraries, all brought to life in a component library. Components are strategically added and removed over time, treating the design system as a constantly evolving product while ensuring universal brand alignment.
Outcomes
4.8
App store rating after redesign
4x
Growth in e-commerce in 3 years
40
Markets, scaled up to from 2