Cyclepic
Reece Group
Australia's largest plumbing and bathroom supplies business
My role
As Principal UX Designer, I:
Co-created the product vision with the PM and helped socialise it across stakeholders
Mentored a mid-level UX designer
Oversaw field usability testing with frontline branch staff
Consulted with engineering on technical feasibility
Designed a high-fidelity prototype, ready for development
Team
The team I worked with:
Product manager
Business analyst
UX designer
Tech lead
iOS engineer
Full stack engineer
Stakeholders
Internal stakeholders included:
Operations
Merchandising
"Lots of photos missing… it's hard to identify products."
－ customer comment in NPS survey
The problem
40% of all products in Reece's ecommerce app and point of sale system had no photo, making it hard for customers and branch staff to identify the correct item. This was consistently one of our top two complaints in NPS surveys for over two years.
This issue directly impacted product findability and customer trust. Solving it was a clear opportunity to improve our customer experience and reduce a known friction point in both digital and physical environments.
How might we ensure the most relevant products have images, so that more users can identify products?
The solution
We took a two-pronged approach:
Declutter the app
The PM and I analysed product purchase history and received buy-in to hide any product with no sales in 12+ months. This cleared 72,000 irrelevant items from the customer experience, many which had no photo.
Crowdsource missing photos
We added a lightweight image-capture feature to a branch-facing iOS app already used for stocktaking. We called it Cyclepic. Staff could take photos of in-stock items using a branch iPhone.
iOS tools removed the photo background behind products and screened for inappropriate content
Photos were routed to our Digital Assets team for review
Approved photos were uploaded to our Product Information System and then immediately surfaced in the app and POS system
Validation and iteration
I tested a Figma prototype on an iPhone directly with four branch staff, from drivers to counter workers.
All users completed the task easily, but skipped the instructional text
I replaced the text with visual cues and added error handling for invalid submissions
Based on feedback, I also added a small 'moment of delight' to the confirmation screen to motivate frequent participation
One major simplification: I removed an unnecessary review screen after discovering iOS could auto-remove photo backgrounds
Challenges
Getting buy-in from stakeholders
The success of Cyclepic hinged on our Digital Assets team reviewing and uploading branch-submitted photos. But they were short-staffed and concerned about time, effort, and photo quality.
We ran a pilot with one branch: 5 photos taken with an iPhone. Quality was acceptable. iOS tools removed the background automatically. We preserved file naming conventions to match their current process. Outcome: no more effort than working with photographers - and full buy-in.
Uncertain branch engagement
Testing showed enthusiasm. I added a 'moment
of delight' confirmation screen to encourage continued use.
Risk of inappropriate submissions
iOS nudity detection helped safeguard content flow before human review. (Ask me about this one!)
Impact
The first part of the solution increased photo coverage from 60% to 78% in one go, just by hiding irrelevant products, most of which had no photo.
The Cyclepic part is not yet launched (almost!), but we’ve defined clear success metrics:
Primary goal: increase product photo coverage from 78% to 85% within 4 months
Supporting indicators: improved NPS feedback on findability, SUPRQ survey results (if conducted 6+ months post-release).
