Domino’s Coupon Management (NGSS)

Role

Lead UX Designer

Client

Domino’s

Scale

Global, 1000s of stores

Scope

Discovery to UI

3 min read

At a glance

Problem

Coupons for thousands of stores were built by hand-linking XML files over FTP, so only IT could make changes.

Key decision

Reframed the project from a website to an application, and mapped the XML relationships to prove a UI could manage them.

Result

Coupons created in half the time in prototype testing, with no hand-linked XML.

Overview

Domino’s managed coupons for thousands of stores worldwide through an FTP system, with XML files linked together by hand to create and distribute each one. There was no user interface, so the process was slow, error-prone, and open only to technical staff.

My role

Led discovery and helped shape the strategy: replace the FTP process with a self-serve coupon management application
Planned and ran research with the people who built and managed coupons, and turned findings into design direction
Designed the interaction model, including the visual relationship mapping at the heart of the tool
Owned visual and UI design across the application
Worked with engineering on how automated XML generation surfaced in the experience

What I learned in discovery

Errors came from invisible connections

Coupons depended on XML files no one could see together, so a change to one could quietly break others.

Only technical staff could make changes

With no interface, every coupon went through IT, creating a bottleneck.

Scale meant local control

Regions had their own coupon rules and needed flexibility without breaking the global system.

Key decision: an application, not a website

Domino’s came in thinking of this as a website. The team had edited XML files by hand for so long that a UI layer on top of them didn’t seem possible. I pushed to reframe the project as an application: a tool that manages the files for people, not a site that sits beside them.

To make the case, I mapped how the XML files connected to each other through their GUIDs. Once the team could see those relationships laid out, it clicked: if the connections could be mapped, they could be managed in an interface. That map became the starting point for the relationship view at the heart of the tool.

What I designed

Visual relationship mapping. Interactive graphs and flow diagrams show how coupons are linked and what a change will affect, before it’s made.
A self-serve interface. Coupons are built in a guided UI, and the system generates the XML, so no one edits files by hand.
Regional control in a global system. Store and regional managers manage their own coupons for local markets while the brand stays consistent.

Outcome

50%

Less time to create coupons. In prototype testing, a group of high-performing stores built the coupons they needed in half the time.

1000s

Stores worldwide on one system, with regional adaptations.

XML files linked by hand. Non-technical users manage coupons themselves.

Next project

Veterans Enrollment System →