Red Bull Records
Case Study Summary
Project Type: UX/UI Design + CRO Strategy
Objective: Overhaul existing Red Bull Records Wordpress/Shopify website to improve CRO, retention, and artist/music discovery
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Strategist, Interaction Designer, Researcher
Team: Red Bull Records - 4 members | Fireside Digital - 5 members | Hyuman Development - 4 members
Duration: 9 months
Software: Figma, Photoshop, Asana, Slack, Loom
Red Bull Records Website
UX Design Case Study
Mackenzie Lisenby
Project Overview
In November 2023, our CRO strategy team at Fireside Digital was hired by Red Bull Records to help analyze and redesign their website. They identified many issues with the existing website, namely that the design was distracting, users could not easily discover the artists’ music on the website directly, and the CRO for their merch Shopify page was very low.
After 9 months of analysis, research, design, prototyping and development, our team successfully redesigned the entire Red Bull Records website. I worked as the sole UI designer for this project, and created low-fi to hi-fi wireframes for both desktop and mobile displays of the site. I was also instrumental in incorporating Spotify and Youtube within the site, and strategized ways in which users could easily discover music by genre.
The site launched in July 2024, and total sales increased 176%, conversion rate increased 220%, and returning customers increased by 29% within 90 days of the launch.
Red Bull Records’ Original Site
The original Red Bull Records website needed help. It had a zig-zag format, buttons didn’t work, music didn’t play, and the merch shopping experience was confusing. My job was to identify what had to stay and what had to go.
Problem: The Homepage and Artist pages had a zig-zag design that would break, and most buttons were non-functional. Users would be led astray by confusing CTAs and not be able to learn about the artist easily.
Problem: The Discography page was a collage of all of the album artwork from each artist, and it was difficult to navigate or play music.
Problem: The Shop landing page combined the Artist and Red Bull Records merch on one page, and was difficult to sort through.
Problem Statement
Red Bull Records needs a new way to allow users and fans to easily discover music, learn about artists, shop for merch, and buy concert tickets in one place and as efficiently as possible.
Identify the User
I began my research by speaking with Red Bull Records team members and site users to understand the needs and wants of the Red Bull Records site. I then narrowed down my findings and created three personas to best describe the average users. It came down to the users who were already fans of RBR artists, users who had never used the site before but wanted to learn more, and the user who is dabbling in music and may want to learn more for professional reasons. This gave me insights as to how best to reorganize the site map and design each new page.
Competitive & Comparative Research
I studied other competitor websites and identified key features that could be incorporated into the new Red Bull Records site, like the use of bold images and textures in RCA and Warner Records. I also found it interesting that very few other record label sites allowed users to play music directly from the website or artist pages. I pitched to the team the idea of having Spotify playlists on nearly every page of the site to set Red Bull Records apart, and we agreed to run with this idea.
RCA Records
Warner Records
A24 Productions
Site Map & Content Analysis
I created a site map of the existing site to visualize all of the pages and content, see how they correlate with one another, and determine redundancies or confusion within the user journeys. I then came up with a proposed, simplified version of the site map with all of the same content, and found a way to reduce the page count by 20%.
Original Site Map
Proposed Site Map
I took a closer look at the homepage and determined what content was necessary to display on the page and how it could be redistributed without the zig-zag design. I also paid close attention to what would appear above the fold, and how to reduce scroll fatigue.
Existing Homepage Analysis
Proposed Homepage Layout
Low-fidelity homepage design
Style Guide & Mood Boards
The Red Bull Records team provided their style guide, and I used this and other brand assets to create a mood board. I wanted to get familiar with their overall brand aesthetic before I began designing the site.
Ideation & Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
I created mid-fidelity wireframes and interaction designs for desktop and mobile versions of all of the core pages of the site. Our team at Fireside pitched these designs to the Red Bull Records team, and iterated based on their feedback.
Desktop Iterations
Mobile Iterations
Challenges & Hurdles
We ran into a few technical challenges during the design phase of the project. For instance, the original design of the homepage included a scrolling gallery of recently released music videos which would autoplay upon entering the site. My strategy was to have a video to increase visual intrigue and give new users a feel for Red Bull Records as a brand. However, this was not feasible in development and would cause long load times. So we decided to go with a scrolling image gallery instead.
The biggest hurdle was creating a seamless flow between the WordPress and Shopify sides of the site. Half of the site, which included the homepage, artist information, and music discovery pages, is run on WordPress, and all of the shopping experiences are run on Shopify. I had the challenge of making UX design and writing decisions to make sure users weren’t getting lost in the process of buying merch, and could find their way back to the music discovery without abandoning their cart.
In addition, many conversations were had about the design of the site, how colorful it should be, and how much information should be presented on each page. The Red Bull Records team also expressed concerns about the future upkeep of the website, and how too many custom components would cause issues going forward. We discussed, iterated, and prototyped the site until we found a simplified aesthetic we all liked.
Final Product
After 9 months of collaboration, iteration, development, and testing, our team successfully created and launched the new Red Bull Records site. It is built in both WordPress and Shopify, and allows users to easily discover artists, play music and videos, shop for tickets and merch, and submit a demo for their own music.
Results & Key Takeaways
The site launched in July 2024, and the final design looks fantastic. The development team did an incredible job implementing my desktop and mobile designs from Figma, and the visuals are cohesive and user-friendly. Within 90 days of launching, the total sales increased 176%, conversion rate increased 220%, and returning customers increased by 29%.
What Worked
Weekly meetings and team collaboration
User-centered design decisions for efficiency
Consistent testing and iterating to meet business and marketing goals
Team brainstorming and problem solving
What Could Be Improved
Smoother flow between artist pages and merch PDPs
Include video header on landing page (from initial design)
Enhance the user experience between the WordPress and Shopify carts
Time management & communication across all team members and stakeholders