Background

In December 2022, Wix, a leading platform for web development, made a strategic shift to become the go-to platform for web professionals, including freelancers and agencies. With over 280 million users globally, Wix discovered that a small percentage (1%) of professional web creators— "Target Partners"—were responsible for 27% of its premium collections. This key group was identified as essential to driving Wix's premium growth, setting the stage for a new business strategy to better serve this segment.

Wix recognized several challenges in engaging web professionals:

Complex Needs: Agencies and freelancers manage multiple clients, requiring advanced tools for collaboration, site management, and client handovers.
Scalability: The diverse needs of freelancers, small agencies, and large enterprises, from simple websites to complex, multi-functional projects, demanded scalable solutions.

Retention: Wix sought to ensure its top creators remained loyal and continued to build and manage premium websites on the platform.

Sneak pick to the UX research

Recognizing the Need for Change: My Role in Identifying the Problem

After engaging in extensive discussions with hundreds of partners, particularly those who had previously churned from Wix, the feedback helped shape the strategic direction. Collaborating with product and UX leaders, the company developed a roadmap to address the needs of its professional user base. This mission became the cornerstone of the 2022 yearly plan.

Project Operations

Given the scale and ambition of the project, Wix divided its teams into two key task forces:

Task Force 1: Focused on creating a new, intuitive, and highly professional site editor.
Task Force 2: Dedicated to finding solutions to help partners manage their business operations effectively.

As the UX leader for Wix OS & API Infrastructure, I led the team responsible for building the business operation infrastructure partners needed. This included identifying key gaps within the platform and designing solutions tailored to the workflows of professional users.

Bottom-Up Design Process

To address these challenges, we envisioned a new account platform designed to manage partners' business operations, which we called "Workspace." This platform would include tools to manage daily operations, from client acquisition to site creation and billing.

Account Switching Solution

We explored multiple designs to streamline account switching, ultimately integrating an easy-to-navigate header allowing users to switch between accounts seamlessly, both at the platform and site levels. This solution provided better control and orientation for partners juggling multiple businesses.

We realized that providing account switching access from both the main header and site-level platform was essential to improve partners' orientation and control.

Notifications Overhaul

At the time of the project, the existing notification system on Wix was primarily designed for DIY users managing a single site, which posed challenges for professional partners managing multiple sites. Notifications were sent across multiple channels, including email, SMS, and push notifications, for each site, resulting in an overwhelming volume of messages. Almost 90% of our partners turned off all notifications to avoid being bombarded, which led to them missing critical updates like site renewals.

The selected soultion

Recognizing this gap, we realized that the solution had to provide more granular control. Initially, we thought bulk notification actions would suffice, allowing users to manage multiple sites at once. However, after conducting interviews, we discovered this approach did not offer enough customization or visibility.

The first soultion

To address this, we developed a Notification Preferences page in the Partners Workspace. This feature allowed users to fully customize which notifications they received for each site and choose specific communication channels. Despite tight deadlines, the team delivered a comprehensive solution that gave partners the control they needed while reducing notification fatigue.

“My Sites” Redesign

We overhauled the "My Sites" page, leveraging ‘Wix Patterns’ new JS library to enable advanced data management features like smart filters, bulk operations, and sorting. This transformed the page into a powerful tool for partners managing hundreds of sites.

Old My Sites Page

We also redesigned the empty state to include a template carousel for quick site creation and previewed management tools to enhance usability.

New empty state experince

A new "Create New Site" popover gave users more flexibility in starting projects, addressing frequent partner feedback.

For enterprise users, we added a side panel with widgets to manage large volumes of sites efficiently.

End Result: We Nailed It Just in Time 😁

Usability and Validation

In August 2023, we invited our top 24 partners to the Tel Aviv office to test the new platform as part of the “Insiders” forum. Their feedback was invaluable, helping us fine-tune the product ahead of the official launch.

Launch and Global Tour

In October 2023, we officially launched the new platform, rebranded as Wix Studio, through a global roadshow that visited 12 cities in 7 weeks. The tour gave users a hands-on experience with the new platform and connected them with top experts. I had the privilege of hosting the Miami event, which was a significant milestone in my career. It was the largest and most collaborative project I had ever been a part of, and the response from users was overwhelmingly positive.

Impact and Future Growth

Wix Studio: Empowering Agencies & Freelancers through a Scalable Platform

Product case-study
Role: Lead Product Designer
2022-2023

Reflecting on Lessons Learned: My Insights for Future Projects

In June 2024, my team launched a new Developers platform at the Dev Con conference in Bangalore, India, which further enriched the Wix Studio offering. This project has been an incredible journey, and we are excited to see what the future holds as we continue to innovate for our users.

Developing a Vision: How I Shaped the Future Direction

Through detailed user journey mapping and competitor analysis, it became evident that the current Wix platform was not optimized for partners managing multiple sites. We identified three critical issues:

Account Switching: Freelancers working with multiple agencies had to repeatedly log in and out of different accounts to manage various sites.
Notifications: Partners managing hundreds of sites received an overwhelming number of notifications, most of which were irrelevant, causing them to miss critical updates.
Site Management: The “My Sites” page lacked data management tools necessary for partners managing large portfolios.