Sherwin Williams New Digital Experience

McKinney was asked to redefine a new app that captures the experience of the DIY customer segment from start to finish.

Listen and Gather

Goals - I traveled to SW HQ to see what their digital experiences have been (typically just color pickers), learn who their audience is and what their expectations are for a new app for their DIY-ers.

Outcome - Gathered notes, ideas to make sure i remembered the conversation when I got back home. Used their current experiences in the real world to help relate old with the new.

Principles and Rationale

Goals - Take the real life initiatives, like color chips, use their breadth of paint options, enhance their idea of simple paint purchasing.

Outcome - I came up with a new way for their audiences to think about their project. Colors where just the start. Making a DIY-er’s remodel project their centerpiece helped sell the new idea to Sherwin.

Sometimes it’s not just important to describe, at a high level, what the experience will be, but what it will not be too. This helps sell the scope and make the project “doable”.

Wireframes and Delivery

Goals - Starting describing a system of new UI and UX experience patterns that expand the app from a color picker to a project manager.

Outcome - Combining the familiar features and user habits from DIY-ers, I used a simple Pinterest tab system of navigation with content being king in the center of the screen. Each card was now “smarter” so it felt like the app was helping a customer create a home project versus an advertisement to sell paint.

Think of a mood board but with a user’s own images of their space. SW’s AI could “re-paint” their images with colors they wanted or with what SW suggested.

Color is king here, and instead of wasting SW’s time and money on sending paint chips, I used the entire screen as a sample. It could be clocked out as an augmented reality color pasted on their wall!!

If a customer could customize their images with ideas, then selling paint was easy. SW could provide options in app, create a cart with the exact supplies needed, box them up and ready for pick up at a Sherwin Willians retail store.