The cleanest wizard is the most effective one.

Talk about the testing and iteration journey from the stock Shopify plugin to the custom Shopify filter to the persona wizard to the current 3 category wizard.

I’m not sure how widely adopted “wizard” is as a descriptor of decision tree UI/UX. At ROAD iD, references to mythical beings is encouraged. We call these things wizards almost exclusively. When I reference “the wizard” here you’ll know not to get excited. I’m only talking about the UI/UX for this customization and purchase path, not some awesome staff-wielding super magician with robes that look really old but also don’t seem like they’d smell bad.

There are lots of decisions to make when customizing a ROAD iD. Also, once you’ve made all those decisions you have to personalize the ID with contact info before you check out. Essentially, there are a bunch of chances for users to bail. This is not a unique problem but we do have a more nuanced issue based on the required customizations of band type, band color, band width (+ length for nylon loop), faceplate finish and wether or not you want the “interactive” version which comes with a whole other thing to explain.

We’ve been through several iterations of this journey in the 3ish years I’ve been with the company. They’ve been through many more. Today I’ll be blathering about the most recent update to this as we look at another wholesale reboot on the slate in Q4. in 2019 we had moved to a decision path experience that brought persona imagery alongside varied product imagery to educate and present social proof as visual guidance for their choices. I personally was not into the experience. Alas, it had beat out its predecessor handily and was therefore our champion.