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Available for work
My Role
Led end-to-end experience design across platforms, collaborated on user research, defined interaction patterns.
Team
Solo designer, with guidance from Design Manager
Prashant kumar - PM
Bhargavi - Web Devloper
Madhur - App Devloper
Project Brief
How we enabled users to: Discover, explore, and filter relevant products based on health goals or intent — improving product visibility, reducing zero-result searches, and increasing conversion from search.
Redesigning Kapiva’s Search for Intent, Relevance & Conversion
Project Timeline: 2 months
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Goals
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Increase search-to-purchase conversion rate by 5% within 2 months.
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Reduced Zero-Result Searches by 20%
Before we get started, here’s a quick introduction to what Kapiva is.
Kapiva is a fast-growing health and wellness D2C brand based in India. It offers modern Ayurvedic solutions across categories like nutrition, immunity, and skin health. With a rapidly expanding catalog and user base, Kapiva blends traditional science with digital-first experiences — serving millions through its mobile apps and websites.
Let’s dive into the main part — Redesigning Search Across Platforms.
Kapiva’s search experience had never been meaningfully designed — neither on the app, nor on the web. The original flow was built during the early stages of the company and had remained untouched, even as the product catalog and user base grew. This was my first major project with the India team, and it was a chance to rethink search from the ground up — across mobile apps, mobile web, and desktop.
but Why? — Problem Identification
As Kapiva’s catalog and customer base grew, the search experience had fallen behind — both in capability and usability. Users struggled to find relevant products, not because the products weren’t there, but because the interface gave them no support.
Critically, there were no autosuggestions, no recent or popular search terms, and no filters to refine results. The search results page had an outdated visual design, and there was no personalization or semantic understanding to support natural-language queries.
This redesign was about catching up to user expectations — and going beyond — by building a search system that understands intent, reduces friction, and ultimately boosts product discoverability and conversion.
Let’s dive into the main part — Redesigning Search Across Platforms.
Kapiva’s search experience had never been meaningfully designed — neither on the app, nor on the web. The original flow was built during the early stages of the company and had remained untouched, even as the product catalog and user base grew. This was my first major project with the India team, and it was a chance to rethink search from the ground up — across mobile apps, mobile web, and desktop.
Design Process
I approached this redesign by grounding it in both business goals and real user behavior.
Step 1: Goal Alignment & Use Case Exploration
I began with detailed sessions alongside the PM to align on business goals and surface key use cases. We discussed:
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What users typically search for — products, health issues, benefits
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The most searched keywords and categories
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How different user types (first-time vs returning) behave
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Points of friction and high drop-off moments in the current journey
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This helped frame the functional priorities and shape the overall direction.
Step 2: Competitive Analysis
With clear goals and user types in mind, I audited health and D2C platforms to identify common interaction patterns and missed opportunities in Kapiva’s current search.
What We Learned from Analysis and Internal Discussions
Before Search: Guiding Users from the First Tap
Kapiva’s search experience had never been meaningfully designed — neither on the app, nor on the web. The original flow was built during the early stages of the company and had remained untouched, even as the product catalog and user base grew. This was my first major project with the India team, and it was a chance to rethink search from the ground up — across mobile apps, mobile web, and desktop.
Previously, users saw only a blank screen after tapping the search bar
New users see Popular Products and Top Categories
Returning users see Recent Searches and Popular Products
but Why?
We personalized the pre-search experience based on user behavior patterns we uncovered during early discussions with the product team.
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Returning users often revisit products they’ve previously searched or purchased — so we surface Recent Searches and Popular Products to help them continue with minimal friction.
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New users are more likely to search directly for specific products rather than browse — so we highlight Popular Products up front. We also include Top Categories to support users who are exploring based on broader health concerns.
While Typing: Guiding with Suggestions
As the user begins typing into the search bar, our focus shifts to speed, relevance, and reducing effort. Here’s how we designed this interaction
We intentionally avoided showing trending terms at this stage — users are already focused on their own query. Introducing trending items here could distract from their flow instead of assisting it.
Use Cases
After Search: Search Results Page
This is where a lot of thinking, brainstorming, and iteration went into play — and easily one of the most interesting parts of the project.
Before this redesign, there was no dedicated search results page. Once a user typed a query, they were shown a basic list of product tiles — with no filters, no sorting, and no structured way to explore or refine. That listing was the results page.
We designed the new Search Results Page from scratch, introducing a system that’s both user-friendly and business-adaptive — prioritizing relevance, clarity, and conversion.
Let me quickly walk you through the old vs. new design before diving into the decisions we made.
Problems in the old design
No fallback for zero-result queries:
If a user misspelled a term or searched for a product that didn’t exist, the page showed nothing useful — no suggestions, no alternate results. This created dead ends and increased drop-offs.
No filters or sorting:
Users couldn’t refine results by price, popularity, product type, or health goals — forcing them to scroll endlessly through an unranked list. This was especially frustrating on mobile.
What We Changed (and Why)
We designed the new Search Results Page from the ground up, transforming it into a smart, adaptable layer that works for both users and business goals.
Here’s what changed:
Consistent Experience Across Web and App
To ensure users enjoy the same intuitive and efficient search experience regardless of device, I designed the web interface to closely mirror the mobile app’s flow and interactions. Instead of re-explaining the entire journey, this section focuses on showcasing the final UI for both platforms—highlighting visual consistency, shared interaction patterns, and responsive design choices.
Impact of the PDP:
Would love to share numbers here… but the devs are still busy bringing this to life 🚧 Stay tuned!