Pelican Cases
role
Principal Product Designer / Design Lead
agency
DEPT® Agency
project engagement
B2C / Jul 2022 - Feb 2023
B2B / Nov 2023 - Apr 2024
challenge
The previous Pelican website effectively supported their government and commercial clients, but its user experience fell short in showcasing Pelican's extensive D2C capabilities. To better serve everyday customers looking to purchase individual orders, significant enhancements were needed to create a more intuitive, seamless, and engaging experience that facilitates easy, direct-to-home purchases.
solution
→ Embody the future direction as a brand that allows Pelican to connect with D2C audiences through a branded commerce experience. This will be in the form of insight-led creativity, with Pelican developers integrating proposed requirements of work.
→ Educate new and returning users to Pelicans top tier production design and unmatched quality.
→ Redesign Pelican.com to forward the site experience, taking into account already integrated improvements and backlog requirements. With this, Pelican needed a fresh brand presence that spoke to their heritage, but also met a new generation of adventures.
→ Support Pelican to progress digitally into an atomic, modular design system & digital brand kit. Allowing for ultimate brand consistency, brand evolution, and design at scale across all digital spaces.
my responsibilities
· Brand Direction
· User Interviews & Surveys
· Unique B2C & B2B Strategies
· Competitive Analysis
· Information Architecture / Sitemap
· Content Guides
· Wireframing
· Client Working Sessions
· Responsive & Adaptive Visual Design
· Inclusivity & Accessibility
creative team
Nicole Engle
John Binagatan
project management
Adam Perez
design director
Abby Lawson
Strategy Kickoff
SME Interviews
We interviewed key individuals and main stakeholder groups with vested interests ranging from Sales & Operations, Marketing, Business Leaders, Investment Contributors, and integrated development leads. We cast a wide net of questions to learn the small details around internal backgrounds, pain points, short and long term goals, and internal processes. The better we knew how the Pelican team works together, the better we could lay a foundation for the future.
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Affinity Mapping
We developed internal tags to group, map and sort through new found user segments, brand strategy, product knowledge, tech innovation, and marketing growth.
User Surveys & Persona Creation
We combined these interviews with our qualitative user research to create four primary user personas. These personas identified personal attributes such as occupations, income, location and product attractions, but widened to explore the user's shopping behavior, base motivations & frustrations and which stand alone Pelican features were most influencial to them.
Navigation Reimagined
Rewrite this to promote size over equipment - We prompted Pelican to flip the script on how they approached the wayfinding of their catalog. The redesigned navigation is centered around helping users find the right case based on what they need to protect, rather than simply choosing a specific product. By guiding users through an intuitive process that asks what type of item they’re securing—whether it's by size or electronics, cameras, or sensitive equipment—the site helps them narrow down options based on their protection needs. This approach ensures users discover the most suitable cases by focusing on the level of protection, size, and functionality required for their specific items, offering a more personalized and solution-driven experience.
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project success
Conversions are up 20% this year. The best year we've ever had.
I can’t thank you and the team enough for all of the incredible work and helping us execute this in a way that has exceeded our expectations. We’re already seeing an incredible lift in site engagement, conversion and overall performance, which supports all of the research that went into this project. I look forward to working with you in the future, but until then, let’s celebrate our win on this new site!
Peter Kapp
Director, eCommerce at Pelican Products
sitemap & navigation
content guides
Strategy Handoff
We elevated, connected, and created consistency within Pelican’s promise of protection. Communicating the brand pillars, consistently familiarizing users with brand related possibilities mid-funnel in the customer decision journey.
Humanizing a vast product line alongside customer reviews, user segment related lifestyle imagery, and educational product storytelling. We cross pollinated the path to purchase, anticipating the user’s purpose and passions based on historical data and stakeholder interview takeaways.
CLP Approach
With scalable solutions designed to consider Pelican’s vast product catalog, we enhanced the experience while refining the typical e-commerce shopping experience.
Custom components designed to strategically funnel users to the best product for their individual needs, while aligning current campaigns, foundational product knowledge and evergreen brand goals. We enhanced the path to purchase and give users a reason to return to the brand post purchase.
CLP Strategy
✓ Cross pollinate other products within product ecosystem.
✓ Increase user’s understanding of product and accessories available.
✓ Increase awareness of possibilities within brand related to user’s shopping behavior
design system
New Brand Design System
· Funnel user’s by search behavior to the best product(s) for their individual needs.
· Maximize storytelling efficiency with flexible components for the entire product ecosystem.
· Adapt messaging with brand priorities, and the ability to learn from behavior patterns.
We built a completely new design system from the ground up, translating Pelican's iconic legacy into a comprehensive experience. Our challenge was to create a cohesive, foundational ecosystem that seamlessly integrates meaningful content while inspiring and educating both new and returning users about the brand heritage in the industry. By developing scalable solutions that accommodate Pelican’s vast product catalog, we not only refined the traditional e-commerce experience, but also introduced custom components and variants that evolve the Pelican brand into the next 10 years of sales. This system aligns with ongoing campaigns, core product knowledge, and long-term brand goals, enhancing the purchase journey and encouraging users to engage with Pelican even after their initial purchase.
visual design
Content Landing Pages
We created an intricate system of Content Landing pages that aim to turn window shoppers into direct online conversions. These pages provide in-depth educational moments on Pelican's overall lifestyle offerings or more specific product lines such as their case series. While spotlighting key features and speaking to the heart of Pelican's passion for the outdoors, customers gain valuable insights and guides to the life a life of adventure.
These Content Landing Pages transition into key marketing campaigns and lead to custom Marketing Landing Pages for seasonal and new product launches.
New Lifestyle Influenced Journeys
A large part of the project was rethinking the User Experience around how Pelican sells its lifestyle opportunities to its visitors. We created a new color system to identify the key lifestyle paths a user may take to reach the product to best suit their endeavors.
• Overlanding - Woodland Green
• Adventure - Dynamic Blue
• Photo & Video - Golden Yellow
• Hunting & Shooting - Desert Brown
Product Detail Page
Key Focus Areas:
Visual clarity: Rich images and configurations reduce friction in choosing variants.
Trust signals: Warranties, certifications, and reviews reinforce buying confidence.
Detailed fit information: Precise specs ensure customers know it fits personal needs.
User flow: Logical info hierarchy (hero → configure → learn → buy) keeping users engaged.
Through numerous iterations, we fulfilled all of Pelican's critical conversion levers: visually driven, trust‑rich, well‑structured, and customer‑focused. We balanced emotional appeal (lifestyle shots, brand prestige) with rational clarity (specs, technical benefits), making for a future proof and high‑performing PDP experience.
project retro
Key Takeaways
124% increase in sessions
Due to improved information architecture, accessibility, and SEO content.
75% increase in website leads
143% increase in Conversion Rate
More efficiently converting our site visitors due to improved Call to Actions, better funnels to drive conversion, and consistent visible forms.
85% increase in custom case leads
Due to improved visibility and education of our custom engineered solutions on the website.
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