Cause/Cart
Rethinking E-Commerce for Social Impact
Cause Cart offers something unique in the e-commerce space: the ability to “shop by cause,” empowering ethically-minded consumers to support issues they care about with every purchase. But in practice, users struggled to find or use this feature.
I joined a UX team tasked with redesigning the shopping experience to make it easier, clearer, and more aligned with the mission of the platform.
My Roles:
• UX Designer
• UX Researcher
Methods:
• Usability Testing
• Competitive Analysis
• Heuristic Analysis
• User Flows
• Site Mapping
• Wireframing
Tools:
• Figma
• Adobe
Deliverables:
• User Journey Maps: Current & Future
• Style Guide and Design System
• Annotated, Interactive Prototypes
• Design Rationale Presentation
The Challenge: A Cause-Driven Experience That Users Couldn’t Find
My user research revealed a frustrating irony: while Cause Cart’s brand revolved around letting users shop by values, like sustainability, social justice, or animal rights, many users couldn’t even find those filters on the site.
Key friction points included:
Causes were buried in subcategories and poorly labeled
Users could only select one filter at a time, limiting personalization
Crucial details about products and their causes were hard to locate
This wasn’t just a usability problem; it was a mission problem. If users couldn’t shop by cause, they couldn’t engage with what made Cause Cart unique.
“It’s impossible to find the cause these products support.”
– Test Participant # 3
Before: ‘Shop by cause’ was buried in the subcategories. The user had to click a product in order to reveal the subcategories or the “causes”, making the feature virtually invisible.
Why are shopping filters so important?
Ideally, applying filters enables shoppers to see the products that match their personal preferences, which reduces the likelihood of them becoming frustrated and exiting the site because of seeing irrelevant or unsuitable products.
Discovery: Mapping Frustration Into Insight
To understand what users expected, I conducted:
Usability Testing with storytelling-style user interviews
Competitive Analysis of e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Etsy
Heuristic Evaluation of the existing site’s filters and flows
Using these findings, I developed a current-state journey map to visualize the frustration points, and the missed opportunities, at each step in the shopping process.
A current-state journey map highlighted drop-off points and emotional friction in the user flow.
Designing the Solution: Clarify, Empower, Inspire
My approach focused on making “shop by cause” visible, intuitive, and empowering. I:
Created personas and journey maps grounded in research
Designed new user flows to reflect best-case scenarios
Reimagined the shopping filter system to clearly separate product categories from causes
Developed a scalable, modular filter interface based on familiar UX patterns
The goal wasn’t to reinvent how filters work but to align them with user expectations while reflecting Cause Cart’s values.
Designing with clarity: my mid-fidelity wireframes introduced clear separation between product categories and causes.
Prototyping & Iteration: From Mid-Fidelity to Meaningful Impact
I built mid-fidelity prototypes in Figma that introduced an obvious “shop by cause” option but testing revealed a major limitation: users could still only apply one filter at a time.
So, I iterated again, this time introducing checkbox-based multi-select filters, inspired by platforms like Best Buy and Amazon.
Users could select multiple causes and categories
Cause filters were clearly labeled and easy to find
The core value proposition was finally visible and usable
Iterating on feedback: Multi-select filters gave users freedom to shop by multiple causes.
Final Outcome: Bringing Cause and Commerce Together
My redesigned filtering experience gave users the power to shop by cause or by product or both. Testing confirmed that users could now navigate the site with greater ease, clarity, and confidence. The new design was not only more intuitive, but more in tune with the mission of the platform.
Key Outcomes
Clear separation between cause and product filters
Familiar UI patterns increased usability and trust
Personalized filtering improved engagement and user satisfaction
Challenges and Lessons Learned
While the client’s vision was clear, users weren’t familiar with the concept of shopping by cause. This taught me that education must be built into the interface. Visibility, clarity, and pattern recognition turned out to be the bridge between mission and usability
Next Steps: Designing for Ethical Impact
To further align with its mission, I recommended Cause Cart explore:
Hosting with green-powered servers
Implementing sustainable web design practices (like image optimization, efficient code and )
Continuing to prioritize accessibility and ethical UX
