Joshua Garcia
Joshua Garcia

The Disco Collective

Shaping a dedicated destination for shopper discovery.

Discovery for shoppers only happened after checkout through DiscoFeed, where a long scrolling list limited how much they could actually explore. This project set out to change that. We shaped the vision for The Disco Collective, a new destination built to extend discovery beyond a single moment and support how shoppers naturally find brands over time.

Role:

Led research, product strategy, and end-to-end design

Date:

Feb ’23–May ’23

Mobile discovery flow for The Disco Collective showing the home page, category view, and brand page. Demonstrates how the redesigned browsing experience introduced clearer structure, brand context, and smoother navigation to support ecommerce discovery and shopper engagement beyond the post-purchase moment.

What shopper behavior revealed

Shoppers discovered new brands only after checkout, where they scrolled through a long, unstructured feed that made it difficult to find anything meaningful. We saw people tapping “Show More” repeatedly, but the moment wasn’t built for the kind of exploration they were trying to do.

We needed a place where discovery could continue. Without a surface shoppers could return to, Disco couldn’t build sustained browsing or long-term trust. Creating a dedicated home for exploration became the foundation for growing into a true marketplace experience.

How shoppers understood the experience

Once inside the prototype, we needed to understand how shoppers interpreted the experience and what made each brand feel credible. Testing showed that clarity mattered as much as content. The home page, category structure, and brand pages each played a role in whether the journey felt worth following.

Shoppers wanted categories that made sense at a glance, smoother transitions between related brands, and clearer details before deciding to click through. These insights guided how we refined navigation, surfaced key information, and clarified the browsing experience for the MVP.

Home page

The original browse surface
Mobile prototype of the Disco discovery experience showing an early home page layout with personalized recommendations and lightweight browsing cues. Designed to test how shoppers explore brands outside the checkout flow and validate patterns for navigation, product discovery, and ecommerce UX clarity.

Category page

The early category layout
Mobile category page prototype for Disco’s discovery experience, showing an early approach to organizing brands within “Beverages.” Designed to help shoppers orient quickly, browse best sellers, and explore product groups with clearer structure. Demonstrates category-level navigation patterns tested for the MVP.

Brand page

The initial brand view
Mobile brand page prototype for Hydrant within Disco’s discovery experience. Shows an early layout designed to help shoppers understand a brand quickly, view best-selling products, and evaluate offers before visiting the merchant site. Demonstrates brand-level context and ecommerce UX patterns tested for the MVP.

What we had to rethink

Testing quickly showed that several early assumptions didn’t hold. Shoppers browsed first, used search only after they had direction, and needed more context before committing to a brand. Discounts helped reinforce interest but didn’t motivate exploration on their own.

Recognizing these patterns helped us define a more focused and realistic MVP.

Diagram showing the original Disco brand setup and onboarding flow. Highlights UX friction points such as unclear paths, off-platform steps, and support-heavy actions. Used to identify system-level pain points and guide the redesign toward a scalable, self-serve onboarding experience for brands.

How we rethought discovery

We reframed The Disco Collective from a directory into a destination. Discovery couldn’t stay tied to the checkout moment, so we focused on creating a place shoppers could return to, explore at their own pace, and trust. That meant rethinking the sequence of exploration, making structure visible, and surfacing a brand’s story earlier in the journey.

From that direction, we shaped the MVP. We centered the experience on clear paths, simple mental models, and lightweight ways to evaluate a brand before visiting its site. More advanced layers like personalization, richer search, reviews, and rewards were sequenced as later phases, allowing the marketplace to grow gradually on a stable foundation.

Start with exploration

A home crafted for browsing
Mobile discovery experience showcasing a personalized product recommendation module on Disco. Highlights the redesigned browsing flow that surfaces relevant brands after purchase, improving shopper engagement and ecommerce discovery through clearer hierarchy, visual storytelling, and a more intuitive post-purchase UX.

Categories shape the path

Easy entry points to shop
Mobile category page design for Disco showing a refreshed Beverages section with visual tiles and personalized top picks. Demonstrates improved browsing hierarchy, clearer product discovery patterns, and a more intuitive ecommerce experience for exploring new drinks and brands.

Story surfaced early

Brand context at the top
Mobile brand detail page for Aura Bora on Disco, showing an improved layout for product education, best-seller highlights, and full catalog browsing. Demonstrates clearer hierarchy and a more intuitive ecommerce experience for exploring a brand’s offerings within the post-purchase ecosystem.

Designing the core experience

With the strategy set, the experience needed to express it cleanly. We shaped the home around steady browsing, using a simple hierarchy and layouts that made it easy to pause, scan, and continue. Categories were designed to feel more intentional, giving shoppers a clearer sense of where they were and what to explore next.

Brand pages were built for quick understanding. Key details surfaced early, and a consistent system of cards, spacing, and navigation tied the product together. The result was an experience that felt cohesive across surfaces and ready for deeper marketplace features.

How the details shaped the experience

We shaped the small moments to feel light and intuitive, so nothing interrupted the act of browsing. The carousel introduced gentle motion that encouraged exploration, and swiping made it natural to move through products at a comfortable pace.

Search played a supporting role. It opened quickly and stayed simple, helping shoppers refine when they had something specific in mind. Menu and show-more patterns kept secondary information reachable without crowding the flow, giving the experience a calm structure that supported longer browsing.

Interactive carousels

Easy movement through items

Search as a shortcut

A light way to narrow results

Controlled density

Details only when needed

The structure the marketplace needed

The work gave Disco its first structured model for how discovery should work beyond checkout. We introduced the patterns for browsing, evaluating brands, and returning to explore, shifting the journey from a single moment to an intentional destination.

The system aligned design, product, and engineering around shared principles. It removed ambiguity and created a dependable base for future marketplace work.

Mobile discovery homepage for Disco showing the new browsing and recommendation model introduced beyond checkout. Highlights the structured system for exploring brands, evaluating products, and returning to shop, creating a more intentional and repeatable marketplace experience across the product ecosystem.
Desktop view of Disco’s redesigned discovery experience showing the new structured model for browsing and personalized recommendations. Demonstrates how the system elevates product exploration beyond checkout, helping shoppers evaluate brands, compare options, and navigate the marketplace with clearer hierarchy and intentional UX patterns.

Credits