Extu Incentive Catalog Redesign

Introduction

Extu offers global channel marketing solutions, including a flagship incentive rewards catalog to drive customer engagement and loyalty. Over time, declining reward redemption rates and growing user frustration signaled that the catalog needed a major overhaul. The existing interface was outdated, difficult to navigate, and lacked personalization—resulting in reduced user engagement and lower client retention.

This case study outlines a two-phase redesign of the Extu incentive catalog. In Phase One, we performed a complete UI overhaul, followed by Phase Two, where we implemented search functionality enhancements. Together, these transformations revitalized the catalog experience and improved key engagement metrics.

 
 

Phase One: UI Overhaul

Discovery & Research

I began with extensive research to understand user pain points and business needs. This included:

  • User & Stakeholder Interviews: Qualitative sessions to capture frustrations, expectations, and opportunities directly from end-users and client stakeholders.

  • Heuristic UX Audit: A systematic usability evaluation of the existing catalog to identify immediate navigation, layout, and responsiveness flaws.

  • Competitive Analysis: I benchmarked against industry best practices for incentive-based e-commerce, studying how leading loyalty programs design their reward catalogs.

 
 
 

Key Findings:

  • The search experience was poor – queries often yielded irrelevant results, there were no filters, and the search was intolerant of typos (e.g. a misspelled product name returned no results).

  • Navigation was convoluted, with a confusing information architecture. Users struggled to browse reward categories or find specific items.

  • No personalization – the catalog lacked features like recommended products or reminders, making the experience feel one-size-fits-all.

  • Numerous UI inconsistencies – broken images, clashing visual styles, and an outdated look and feel did not align with modern UX standards.

  • The mobile experience was underwhelming due to poor responsive design, leading many users to avoid redeeming rewards on their phones.

 
 

UI Improvements & Pilot Testing

Using these insights, we rolled out a modernized UI that addressed the most critical issues:

  • A personalized “For You” section was added to the homepage, providing tailored reward suggestions based on each user’s past redemptions and wishlist items.

  • Improved Navigation: Implemented a clear category menu and filters near the search bar, making it easy to browse by department or reward type.

  • Trending Items & Featured Rewards: New sections highlighted popular items and special promotions, encouraging product discovery and engagement.

  • Better visibility for Event & Travel incentives, which were previously buried – I gave these high-value rewards a dedicated spotlight module on the page.

  • Streamlined checkout and communication: The redemption checkout flow was simplified and confirmation emails were made clearer, reducing confusion about order status.

Results & Insights

The UI refresh was well-received aesthetically, and usability issues identified in our audit were largely resolved. However, immediately after Phase One, engagement metrics showed only modest improvement. Users were spending more time browsing (suggesting the new layout encouraged exploration), but redemption rates did not jump as expected.

Upon analysis, we discovered a systemic challenge: many users still couldn’t redeem meaningful rewards because point distribution in some programs was too low or slow. In other words, even with a better catalog experience, if it takes too long to earn enough points for any item of value, users disengage. Additionally, our search functionality remained a weak link – the underlying search engine hadn’t been updated yet, so finding specific rewards was still frustrating. These findings informed our next phase of work.

 

Modernized incentive catalog UI with improved navigation, visuals, and personalized reward suggestions. These UI updates were first piloted internally (via Extu’s “Excellence” program) and then beta-tested with select client programs. Feedback from the pilot was positive – users found the new interface clean and easier to use, and clients appreciated the refreshed look that aligned with contemporary design standards. Minor tweaks were made based on testing (for example, adjusting the placement of the “For You” section and fine-tuning the filter options).

 


Phase Two: Search Functionality Enhancements

Identifying Search Pain Points

Post-launch feedback and usage data made it clear that search was the top priority to address next. Users reported that the catalog’s search bar still felt “dumb” and often unhelpful:

  • No typo tolerance: A single letter off would yield zero results (for example, searching “headphones” would fail to suggest “headphones”).

  • Exact match required: The search algorithm was very rigid – users had to enter exact product names or categories to find what they wanted. Partial matches or related terms often returned nothing useful.

  • Poor result ranking: By default, results were sorted by best-sellers overall, rather than what was most relevant to the query. This meant the first page of results often wasn’t actually what the user was looking for.

  • Confusing sorting UI: The “Sort By” dropdown in the UI was mislabeled – it listed some categories (e.g. Electronics, Appliances) instead of actual sort options. This misled users who thought they were filtering or sorting differently, when in fact the behavior was inconsistent.

Solutions Implemented

To fix these issues, we overhauled the search system both on the front-end and back-end:

  • ElasticSearch Integration: We replaced the basic search engine with ElasticSearch, configuring it for fuzzy matching to catch typos and partial matches. The new search now offers suggestions even if the query is misspelled or incomplete, dramatically improving the chance users find relevant items.

  • Relevance-based Ranking: The result sorting logic was changed to prioritize relevance. We defined custom relevance scoring – for instance, product titles and category keywords are weighted higher, so a search for “wireless headphones” shows the most relevant wireless headphone products first, instead of just the top sellers overall.

  • Improved Filtering UI: We fixed the “Sort By” options and added true sorting methods (by price, by newest, etc.) and distinct filters for category, point range, and brand. This reduced user friction in narrowing down results.

  • Mobile responsiveness fixes: While addressing search, we also cleaned up the mobile UI that displays the search suggestions and results. The search bar and filters became more touch-friendly, and the suggestion dropdown now scales correctly on small screens.

 

The new search implementation required improving the code and user interface. Spacing issues and drop-down menus are not included in this phase but will be addressed in the next phase. The development team focused on ElasticSearch queries and optimized the index, while I updated the search bar and results page. We introduced these search improvements gradually, starting with internal testing, followed by a limited release to some users. This approach helped us track search success and adjust relevance scoring before the full launch.

 

Outcome & Next Steps

Early metrics after the search enhancements showed promising improvements. Search success rate (queries where users clicked a result or redeemed an item) rose significantly. In fact, redemptions improved by ~20% in the month following Phase Two, likely because users could finally find the items they wanted without frustration. We expect this trend to continue and even accelerate during peak holiday season when reward activity is highest, thanks to the now robust search experience.

That said, our work is ongoing. Further optimization on mobile is planned – despite the responsive fixes, we know the mobile experience could be even more seamless. Additionally, we identified some issues with reward availability info (e.g. occasionally showing items that were out of stock or not updating wishlist items when stock changed). These are slated to be addressed in the next development sprint, along with more personalization tweaks such as dynamic recommendations based on search history.

 

Challenges & Learnings

No large-scale redesign comes without challenges, and the Extu catalog project was no exception. We faced several hurdles:

  • Legacy Technology & Customization: Some of Extu’s clients had heavily customized versions of the incentive catalog with unique features or integrations. Updating the core product without breaking those customizations required careful architecture. In some cases, we had to create fallback designs or conditional logic to preserve legacy behaviors for specific clients, while still moving the overall platform forward.

  • Limited Engineering Bandwidth: Our development team was small and juggling multiple projects. Balancing the development of new features (like ElasticSearch integration) with ongoing bug fixes and technical debt maintenance was difficult. This taught us to be very deliberate in scoping Phase Two – we had to prioritize the most critical search improvements and defer nice-to-have features.

  • Point Economy Disparity: As mentioned, we learned that UX alone can’t fully solve engagement if the incentive structure isn’t enticing. Some programs simply didn’t give out enough points for users to redeem anything meaningful in a reasonable time. This was outside the UX team’s direct control, but it was an important learning to communicate to business stakeholders. In future client engagements, we now highlight that a healthy loyalty program requires both a great user experience and a well-designed points economy.

Various roadblocks (technical and systemic) had to be navigated throughout the project. These challenges reinforced the importance of a phased approach. By tackling the UI first, we gathered user goodwill and internal momentum, which helped when addressing deeper functionality in Phase Two. We also leaned heavily on data-driven decision making – for example, using analytics to decide which search features to build first. Lastly, we learned to iterate continuously. Instead of viewing the project as one-and-done, we established an ongoing roadmap for improvements (mobile, wishlist accuracy, etc.), ensuring the catalog keeps evolving after the initial redesign.

Conclusion

The Extu Incentive Catalog redesign was a crucial step in modernizing an outdated rewards platform. Through a combination of UI improvements and back-end enhancements, we transformed the experience into something more intuitive, engaging, and aligned with user expectations. The project demonstrated how thoughtful UX changes can drive real business outcomes – in this case, boosting user engagement and satisfaction, which in turn helps client retention for Extu.

Post-redesign analytics showed increased user activity and redemption rates, validating the UX improvements. By improving navigation, adding personalization, and fixing search, we removed the friction that had been discouraging users. Clients reported positive feedback from their program participants, and many who were considering alternative solutions decided to continue with Extu thanks to the new catalog experience.

Next Steps:

  • Further enhance mobile responsiveness to ensure the catalog is equally usable on all devices.

  • Refine the wishlist and checkout features (e.g. real-time item availability, clearer notifications if an item in your wishlist is back in stock).

  • Continue monitoring usage data and user feedback to drive an iterative cycle of improvements, ensuring the catalog keeps adapting to user needs.