Original Gift Certificate/Gift a Friend/Tell a Friend Pathway

The iTunes Music Store Gift Certificate pathway was one of the first features added to the store after its launch in 2003. The goal of this feature was to make it easy for people to purchase and share music with friends and family, and to help drive additional sales for the store.

Design Challenge:

* The main challenge in designing the Gift Certificate experience was creating an easy-to-use process for purchasing and redeeming certificates that integrated seamlessly with the existing iTunes Music Store.

* Additionally, the team needed to ensure that the gift certificates were visually appealing and easy to understand, as they would be given as gifts to others.

Research:

* In order to design a great experience, I began researching existing gift certificate systems used by other online retailers and realizing exactly what we didn’t want to do.

* Through this research, they learned that most gift certificate systems required a person to enter a lot of personal information and billing details, which could be a barrier to purchase.

* I also discovered that many existing systems made it difficult to redeem the gift certificates, often requiring the recipient to navigate through multiple pages and menus in order to redeem the code.

Design:

* I addressed these issues by designing a simplified purchase process that only required a person to enter their own name and email address, along with the recipient's name and email address.

* The gift certificates were delivered directly to the recipient's email inbox, with clear instructions on how to redeem them.

* To further simplify the process, I integrated the gift certificate redemption process directly into the iTunes Music Store, so that people could redeem the code and begin shopping immediately.

* The pathway for purchasing featured the iconic iTunes logo and prominently displayed the value of the gift certificate so people could buy a certificate for any amount they desired.

Evaluation:

* Gift Certificates were a major success for the iTunes Music Store. By making it easy for people to purchase and share music, the feature helped drive additional sales for the store.

* It also helped to create a sense of community, as they could easily share their favorite music with friends and family.

* The gift certificate feature was simple, elegant, easy to use and understand, which made them a popular gifting option.

Conclusion:

The design of the original Gift Certificate was a great example of ways meaning can be added to people’s lives through the gift of music. By focusing on creating an meaningful experience, I was able to create a feature that resonated with people and helped to drive additional sales for the store.