Building South Africa’s first Edgars e-commerce experience from a blank page.
The Brief
Edcon wanted to launch Edgars’ first ever e-commerce website,with a tight deadline and no brief. No direction on look and feel, no defined scope, no starting point. Just an ambition and a timeline.
My Role
As one of only three digital designers in the business with the relevant expertise, I took the initiative to create the brief myself. I facilitated sessions with the Digital Marketing Manager and E-Commerce Executive to establish functionality, look and feel, and site architecture, then moved straight into user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups, all within a month The designs became the foundation the development team built from. Shortly after, I was promoted to Lead.
The Challenge
The hardest part wasn’t the deadline, it was the ambiguity. Starting without a brief means starting without permission to get things wrong, which is exactly when design thinking matters most. Bringing structure to an undefined problem, getting stakeholder alignment quickly, and delivering something buildable under pressure is a different skill set to executing a well-defined brief. This project required all of it.
Outcome
Edgars launched their first e-commerce website. A project that started with no brief and a 1 month window ended with a promotion and a foundation I’ve built on ever since. Edcon went through significant change in the years that followed, closing many of its brands, but Edgars is still trading, and the e-commerce store is still live. That’s a longer shelf life than most digital work gets.