Joshua Garcia
Joshua Garcia

The Disco Collective

Building a destination for shopper discovery.

Shoppers discovered new products only in Disco's post-purchase experience, a long scrolling list shown after checkout. They wanted more. We shaped The Disco Collective: a place for shoppers to discover brands beyond checkout. Research-grounded, prototyped, tested. Discovery as a destination, not a moment.

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.

The Show More signal

A Show More button sat at the bottom of Disco's post-purchase page. Shoppers tapped it more than they clicked individual products. Click-through stayed near 0.3%; Show More ran several times higher.

The page wasn't built for that demand.

Three needs surfaced

We prototyped the destination and tested it with shoppers, focused on what made each brand worth the click. Three needs surfaced. Categories needed to make sense at a glance. Transitions between related brands needed to feel smoother. Details needed to surface before the click.

These weren't preferences. They were what discovery needed to work.

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 also broke several assumptions about how shoppers behaved.

Shoppers browsed first, used search only after they had direction, and wanted context before committing. Discounts reinforced interest but didn't drive exploration on their own.

Discovery was slower and more deliberate than we'd assumed.

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.

Destination, not directory

We reframed The Disco Collective from a directory into a destination.

Discovery couldn't stay tied to the checkout moment. The slow, deliberate process shoppers wanted needed a place of its own.

The MVP focused on the basics: brand-led discovery, context surfaced before the click, and routes shoppers could return to.

Personalization, richer search, reviews, and rewards waited for later phases.

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.

The core experience

The destination came together across three surfaces.

The home led with brand cards anchored to a shopper's last purchase, a personalized mix of brands they might like next. Curated rows and a brand grid ran beyond it.

Categories opened into editorial hero collages, then ran Best Sellers, New Arrivals, and a brand grid below. Load More Brands sat at the bottom. Show More, but with a destination.

Brand pages led with the brand: logo, name, hero image. Category, values, social, and website appeared above the products. Similar Brands at the bottom returned shoppers to the network rather than dead-ending the page.

The supporting patterns

Carousels paced the rows deliberately. One card at a time, swipe to advance.

Search worked as a shortcut, not a starting point. Shoppers used it to narrow results once they had direction.

Density stayed controlled. Brand bios expanded on tap. The menu nested categories alongside brand values. Nothing crowded the page.

Interactive carousels

Easy movement through items

Search as a shortcut

A light way to narrow results

Controlled density

Details only when needed

Where it landed

The destination was research-grounded, prototyped, and tested. It came together across design, product, and engineering. The business pivoted before launch, and it didn't ship.

The case the research made still holds: discovery is a destination, not a moment.

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