ZENxd . user experience design . strategy . development

The Challenge

Back in 1999, the sky seemed to be the limit for "dot coms". Decide.com was a real contender to be the leading online resource for comparing and buying cell phones, service pans and accessories. In order to compete in this space and succeed, Decide needed strong leadership guiding their design initiatives.

The Solution

Both ZEN principals were engaged in this process, in fact this is where their long-time relationship began. Leading the design efforts at Decide.com through 1999-2000, ZEN's expertise drove design innovations in a space that was ahead of it's time. Decide.com could arguably be considered one of the first "comparison shopping" sites, and emerging best practices were only beginning to be defined.

Innovations

Wireless Test Drive
ZEN designed a unique web interface for a revolutionary service allowing users to selectively "hear" call quality from different carriers at specific locations along their communte, near their homes and places of business. This was accomplished on the ground by a vast fleet of "call quality" vans fitted with a bank of cell phones that placed calls and recorded sound clips every 90 seconds. Vans were driven many thousands of miles in all major metro areas in the U.S. and the audio clips were made available to users through the Mapquest API.

Unbiased Comparison Shopping
Decide was daring in it's conviction to "send you to the best place to buy wireless services regardless of whether we get paid or not". This was one of the very first comparison shopping sites embracing this mode of thinking in the spirt of providing users with a completely unbiased and comprehensive selection of products. ZEN was a key player in developing this product strategy and it's representation in the site interface. As part of the comparison shopping experience, ZEN designed a "persona-based" selection model as well as a side-by-side plan and device comparison matrix.