Industry:
E-commerce, Outdoors
Company:
Altitude Sports
Year:
2017
Experience:
UX/UI Designer, Front-End Developer
Altitude Sports
about.
Altitude Sports, based in Montreal, is an online retailer specializing in technical outdoor gear, urban, and high-end clothing. They also operate an outlet and discount store called The Last Hunt (La Dernière Chasse).
Designed layout patterns and established visual hierarchy across multiple sites, refreshed seasonal content with updated graphics, built new landing pages for premium brands (e.g., North Face, Icebreaker) using HTML5/CSS/JS templates, developed special features in PHP on the Magento back-end, and created online banner ads and email newsletters from design through to code, including The Last Hunt sale website refreshes (EN/FR) and full promotions websites and emails via Mailchimp.
Work completed prior to Altitude Sports migration from Magento to Shopify.
the challenge.
Content Freshness: Quickly identifying and updating top-selling items was critical to maintaining user engagement in the fast-paced fashion industry.
Relevance to Trends: Seasonal outdoor and sports gear needed constant updates to align with customer demand and fashion trends.
Audience Connection: Design needed to resonate with outdoor enthusiasts and athletes across Canada and the US.
Inconsistent Layouts: Each brand landing page had separate design layouts and CSS files, creating maintenance challenges and a disjointed user experience.
Page Load Speed: Analysis revealed that visitors who converted accessed pages that loaded twice as fast as non-converting pages, highlighting performance as a key driver of engagement and sales.
target users.
Outdoor enthusiasts, Eco-conscious shoppers, urban adventurers, athletes, fashion-concious consumers.
competitors.
design solution.
My concept was to create a magazine spread-style layout that incorporated quick street-style snapshots, inspiring users while connecting them directly with the brands. This modular approach gave flexibility to brands with fewer products, while also maintaining a visually engaging experience for larger collections.
On the technical side, I saw an opportunity to optimize the code structure, ensuring a cleaner, more efficient framework that made it easy for internal teams to update pages. This not only supported seasonal updates across multiple brands but also established a cohesive and scalable system that could adapt as the business evolved.
design principles applied.
To bring this vision to life, I proposed and implemented a modular, magazine-inspired design system that delivered both visual impactand operational flexibility:
Magazine Spread Story Layout: Designed a modular layout inspired by magazine spreads, incorporating narratives that resonate with users and enhance brand connection.
Consistent and Maintainable Layouts: Developed standardized layout patterns across all brand pages to ensure visual coherence providing a seamless user experience that helps users understand and process information efficiently.
Scalable Modules: Created reusable templates to support quick seasonal updates and new product launches, balancing flexibility and consistency.
Fashion and Trend Alignment: Ensured continuous alignment with the latest fashion trends and seasonal gear through a “timeless magazine look,” keeping the brand fresh and relevant.
Optimized CSS & Codebase: Consolidated stylesheets and streamlined code for faster load times, significantly enhancing page speed and overall user satisfaction.
Streamlined Update Process: Implemented a clean, optimized code structure that facilitates easy content updates across all brands.
