AI-Assisted Shopping: From Vague Needs to the Right Fit
Redesigning the Total Wireless phone-shopping experience to help customers navigate devices, plans, and promotions through clearer product discovery and AI-assisted guidance.
Roles & Responsibilities
Product designer on the phone shopping stream within a larger Total Wireless redesign. I took the experience from early exploration and wireframes through high-fidelity design and final handoff to Verizon.
Defining the shopping flow
I explored how customers could discover and narrow phone options, including where AI-assisted guidance could support the decision.
From wireframes to final design
I translated early concepts into wireframes, then refined product listings, filters, cards, and interactions into a cohesive high-fidelity experience.
Preparing for delivery
I created responsive final hi-fi designs and partnered with the broader team to prepare the experience for Verizon handoff.
Role
Product Designer
Duration
4-5 months
Team
Publicis Sapient Design | Verizon Product
Buying a phone from a carrier is rarely just about the phone.
Customers are often choosing a device, a wireless plan, and a promotion at the same time.Many don’t arrive knowing exactly what they want. They may only know their budget, a few preferences, or the kind of deal they’re looking for.
The Challenge
Customers knew their constraints, not always the product.
Traditional product listings work well when customers already know what to search for. But at Total Wireless, shoppers often started with something much less specific: a budget, a feature, or a promotion.
With devices, plans, pricing, and offers competing for attention, the experience asked customers to translate those vague needs into product filters on their own.
The opportunity was to help customers move from
“I roughly know what I need” → “I can see which options fit me.”
Main Question
How might we help customers turn vague needs into a focused set of relevant phones?
Our Approach
Guide the decision.
Clarify the catalog.
We approached the problem from two sides:
01
Use AI to help customers narrow their choices
—
02
Redesign the product experience so the remaining options are easier to scan and compare
01
Start with what customers already know.
Instead of asking customers to understand the catalog first, we let them start with what they already knew: their budget, preferences, and priorities.The AI assistant turns those inputs into product criteria and progressively narrows the catalog.
Tell us what matters → Narrow the choices → Compare → Decide
Keep guidance next to the products
We kept the assistant alongside the product listing instead of turning it into a separate chatbot experience.
As customers refined their needs, they could see the catalog narrow in real time, keeping guidance and product discovery connected in one flow.
From narrowing choices to answering what comes next.
Once customers reached a smaller set of options, the assistant could continue helping them understand product differences, promotions, and plan-related questions without restarting the journey.
02
Make the remaining choices easier to scan.
Narrowing the catalog only works if customers can quickly understand what remains.
We redesigned product cards and listing hierarchy around the information shoppers were most likely to compare first.
—
Price first
Surface cost immediately.
—
Promotions surfaced
Bring carrier-specific value into the decision.
—
Less competing information
Reduce secondary content so key differences stand out.
Make filters part of the guidance, not a separate task.
We simplified the filtering model and aligned it with the same criteria used by the AI assistant.
Whether customers narrowed products manually or through conversation, both paths led toward the same outcome: a smaller, more relevant set of phones.
*AI support is embedded across the shopping journey
03
From structure to final experience
We evolved the experience from early wireframes into a cohesive desktop and mobile experience, refining product hierarchy, filters, AI placement, and promotional content along the way.
The Outcome
We delivered the redesigned phone-shopping experience on schedule, with strong feedback from the Verizon team and a complete responsive design package ready for handoff.
You can explore more of the final experience on the Total Wireless website.
< 3 months
From early wireframes to final high-fidelity delivery
Strong feedback
Positive response from the Verizon team
Ready for handoff
Responsive final designs and prototypes delivered across desktop and mobile
