Faithful to Nature
Omnichannel platform redesign in a complex, dev-first environment
Lead UX/UI Designer
September 2024 – Present
Figma, Miro, Jira
Ongoing
One of South Africa's largest online wellness retailers. Rapid store expansion has moved the platform into a full omnichannel environment.
The Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration started around 2020. Multiple designers passed through. I joined as the lone lead UX/UI designer in September 2024.
The platform was live. Revenue was flowing. But years of dev-first decisions had accumulated into significant UX debt. No single designer had stayed long enough to address it systematically.
The Environment
Working conditions
Dev-first culture. Low UX maturity across the organisation.
Significant accumulated UX debt. Inconsistency baked into the platform.
Design constrained by data availability, not by user need.
Legacy Magento 1 dependencies limit what is buildable on Magento 2.
Historical decisions frequently misaligned with UX best practice.
Systems thinking became non-negotiable. Every design decision had downstream consequences: across tech, logistics, data, and operations.
Advocating for good UX here means translating user needs into business outcomes and technical language simultaneously. It is a skill. It has become one of my strongest.
Team
CEO
Co-CEO
Chief Technology Officer
BE Architecture Developer
Acumatica Developer
2× Backend Developers
2× Frontend Developers
Product Owner
Project Manager
UX/UI Designer (me)
Consistent filtering system
Shipped
When I joined, filtering changed structure between category levels. L1 looked different from L2. L2 from L3. No shared logic. No shared pattern.
The problem
Filtering patterns varied across every category level. Users had to relearn navigation at each step.
The solution
One consistent filtering system. Two search streams. Applied at every level of the platform.
Two search streams
01: Values
Search by what matters to the user.
Social values
Environmental values
Business values
Ingredient values
02: Product
Traditional product-led search.
Search by product type, category, or keyword. Familiar. Fast. Consistent at every level.
Both paths lead to the same destination.
Omnichannel collection options
In progress
Faithful to Nature is opening stores at a rapid rate. The platform needed to reflect this, extending beyond its original delivery model into a true omnichannel experience.
Delivery and collection options
Existing
Economy delivery
Express delivery (selected areas)
Pargo collection point
FtN warehouse, Johannesburg
FtN warehouse, Cape Town
New
In-store collection: 17 locations and growing
Scheduled delivery: choose date and timeslot
Design considerations
Logistics: what is executable given postcode, zone, and area parameters.
Data: what is available now vs. what is coming in a staggered rollout.
Omnichannel: decisions must account for the full ecosystem, not isolated features.
M1 dependencies: legacy constraints define what is buildable on M2 today.
Outcome
Consistent filtering system shipped. Omnichannel collection options in active design. UX practice embedded in a team that had none. Project ongoing.
Reflection
Balancing UX ideals against data availability and technical constraints is a distinct skill
Systems thinking at scale requires mapping dependencies before designing solutions
Low-UX-maturity environments require evidence-led advocacy, not assumption
Production site
View the current live experience.