Nike AirImagination

Client
UPS
Agency
AKQA
Role
UX Director
CHALLENGE
The engagement began as a competitive pitch focused on reimagining the UPS returns experience. As e-commerce continues to evolve, UPS recognized an opportunity to remove friction from one of the most important moments in the customer journey while building greater trust with both consumers and small businesses.

After winning the pitch, the opportunity expanded dramatically. Rather than redesigning a single feature, UPS entrusted our team with reimagining the entire mobile app experience for both consumers and business owners.

Over the following year, we reimagined the mobile experience by transforming complex logistics into intuitive, proactive interactions that reduced friction, increased confidence, and made shipping feel effortless for both consumers and small businesses.
APPROACH
As UX Director, I led the experience strategy and concept development for the redesign, working alongside Group Creative Director Sarah Lockwood while partnering closely with UPS stakeholders, product teams, and a second UX Director responsible for production and implementation. My focus was on defining the product vision, shaping the experience architecture, and building confidence around new ideas throughout the engagement.

UPS came into the project with extensive internal research, customer insights, and data gathered from consumers and small businesses. Rather than starting from scratch, I translated those findings into strategic product concepts, helping identify opportunities that balanced business objectives with customer needs.

To communicate those ideas, I developed a presentation framework that combined research insights, competitive analysis, emerging interaction patterns, and future-looking concepts into a clear narrative. Each concept was presented alongside evidence, industry examples, and a strategic rationale before evolving into wireframes and prototypes. This approach helped align stakeholders around new directions and created a shared understanding of why each feature mattered before execution began.

The redesign also shifted the role of the mobile app itself. Rather than treating it as a destination users visited only when they needed to ship a package, we explored a more proactive experience through contextual interactions, widgets, and one-tap actions that surfaced information when it was most relevant. The result was a product vision that felt simpler, faster, and better integrated into customers’ daily lives while remaining flexible enough to support the complexity of UPS’s global logistics platform.
OUTCOME
The redesigned UPS mobile app launched successfully following an extensive beta program, transforming what began as a feature redesign into a complete reimagining of the mobile experience. The project established a new foundation for the product while delivering a simpler, more intuitive experience for both consumers and small businesses. The redesign was recognized with a Webby People’s Voice Award and marked a significant shift in customer perception. When the engagement began, the app held an App Store rating of approximately 2.8 out of 5. Following the redesign and launch, customer satisfaction improved dramatically, with the app continuing to evolve to its current 4.6 out of 5 rating from over 1 million ratings.
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