NZXT.com
INTRO
ROLE
Design Leadership
UI/UX
Product Strategy
DTC Strategy
Client/Context
NZXT
Year
2021-2025
Category
DTC PC Gaming Hardware
Credits
Work shown encompasses years of hard work by the entire talented web and UX team at NZXT
+25%
Increase in Conversion Rate
(~$2,000+ Average AOV)
80%
Faster Time to Market
(Based on approx. time to launch a sale)
+40%
Increase in Mobile Conversion Rate
(Compared to 2019 rate of ~0.2%)
Two must become one
Purple meets Teal
BLD was launched on its own domain, letsbld.com primarily because the company wanted to easily kill it if everything went south - even going as far to use teal which is not commonly part of NZXT's trademark purple brand coloring.
If you look at these two websites, they don't look related. Further, these approaches also had little resemblance to the iconic, minimal (and clean white) design that NZXT is known for which is characterized by whitespace and "hits of purple". Everything is NZXT and for it be a DTC store and destination for all NZXT products - it needed a new design and new architecture.
Embracing Start White
Building a clean concept
One of NZXT's design values is "Start White". Designing in white is harder, mistakes are more visible. It also offers a blank canvas effect which is a key element of NZXT's brand which focuses on inclusion and minimalism. This allows our products to adapt to whomever is using them: Anyone can be a PC gamer.
With a small team, we started concepting with aggressively clean and minimal designs - aiming to mix DTC requirements and a fresh new take. We needed something that felt clean but not sterile and importantly would utilize a design system. Early on, the team decided on using Tailwind as a scaffold - that informed how our components would work and propelled the next set of iterations.
The Building Blocks Begin
One step at a time
The plan was ambitious and would require 6-8 months of intense development to hit our early 2021 target. In the meantime, the pandemic was raging (and business was booming) so we started down the path to slowly bring the two websites together.
We refreshed the navigation and header section to focus on fields of white space, expanding the amount of information that was visible - opting for multiple modules rather than a singular, screen-filling hero. We begin scaling back the use of purple (although it was still a strong presence) and we retired the original BLD logo for a new co-branded version using "Powered by NZXT BLD". This also allowed us to start co-mingling the NZXT designed products side-by-side with the NZXT BLD ones.
At this point, NZXT.com and LetsBLD.com were still separate websites linking to each other.
Refining the System
Atlas lives
We launched the new website built on Tailwind using DatoCMS and deployed on Vercel in mid-2021. As we tested and iterated, we found that we had over-corrected on purple with the website feeling almost empty. However, it was much more clean and responsive with noticeably better mobile experience and it was 10x easier to update and deploy changes.
Progressing from 2021 to 2022, we made important changes - changing the navigation to be darker and adding a flash banner for messaging. As the DTC business progressed, we began adding "merchandising" modules with dynamic logic and reusable banners. We also started to bring more color back into the experience while maintaining a sharp governance over where it was used - conversion rates begin to rise, traffic increased and…our prebuilt systems took off.
Keeping it Simple
Meet the Players
When BLD started, its most popular method of purchasing was the Custom PC Configurator. Each PC was hand-built to order.
We introduced prebuilt PCs during the pandemic where people wanted a PC faster (with less customization) and eventually became our Starter, Streaming and Creator PCs (with Base, Plus and Pro models). Slowly but surely, prebuilts were overtaking Custom PCs. Daily, we optimized for conversation but were hitting walls.
We wiped the slate clean and re-branded the prebuilt line to the Player PC line up. Player: One, Two and Three with a Prime upgrade - along with it, we introduced a new interface that allowed minor changes (like a bigger hard drive). Internally, this became known as a Hybrid - not quite prebuilt, not quite custom.
Customers loved it - conversion shot up and within a month, hybrids made up a large chunk of orders.
Maturity and Powerful Features
A DTC Engine
3 years later, the NZXT desktop system business runs on a mature version of the site. With the launch of NZXT Flex, our subscription PC service plus a tight integration with Eko Interactive Videos - the Player PCs have dozens of robust features that further push conversion rates up.
Everything from the site's drop-down navigation to the dynamic ability for hybrid PCs to be bundled with gaming gear and promotions for MDF grants or partner launches are weaved into the site experience seamlessly. The team can also launch a sale event in under a day.
There was a time…that the Black Friday sale (10% off everything) took over a month of preparation, design and engineering work. Today, the team runs a lead-up, pre-sale and Black Friday sale (before launching into holiday sales) with advanced logic, various deal tiers, bundling and promotional attachments.
Don't get me started on our email campaigns…
