A list of selected research projects
A selection of research projects delivered over the past years at Decathlon, with a focus on the methodologies applied, my approach, and a bit of my background.
Introduction
My background
I am not a pure designer, which means I did not study Design at school. I have a background in Behavioral and Experimental Economics, which I found extremely useful when applying research methods in real projects.
I studied biases, heuristics, and how to apply rigorous methodologies to research studies. At first, I wanted to pursue a PhD, but that’s another story.
Today, I genuinely enjoy conducting research, interviewing customers, defining research protocols, and everything related to listening to users and understanding their behavior.
Research and tools
I joined Decathlon being positioned as 50% Product Designer and 50% User Researcher. This role allowed me to work on UX/UI projects while actively conducting a significant amount of research.
I was the only researcher in Italy, leading local research projects while progressively becoming involved in international initiatives.
I conducted research across multiple countries (France, UK, Spain and Netherlands) collaborating closely with researchers based in Amsterdam.
Well, actually, I think I ended up doing even more research than design… anyway, that's another story. 😅
During the last two years, I have conducted and led more than 15+ strategic research projects at Decathlon, applying different research methodologies to address different product questions and capture a wide range of insights.
In terms of tools, I regularly used:
UserTesting and similar platforms for usability studies
Contentsquare (heatmaps, journey analysis, session recordings)
Amplitude (basic data exploration and visualization)
Medallia for customer feedback analysis
Miro and Figjam during workshops, mapping activities and more.
Key projects
Here are some of the key strategic projects I worked on in Decathlon.
That's not all, this is around 5%. 🤓
Exploration and relevance of the homepage
Research goal
Understanding how customers perceive and navigate the homepage in order to improve relevance, clarity, and personalization.
I led this research project by defining the research protocol, script and conducting both moderated and unmoderated user tests.
I synthesized the findings, insights, and I flied to Amsterdam to present the project.
This research directly informed a 14-day design sprint focused on redesigning the homepage.
Interaction and behavior in search
Understanding how customers use the search bar, in which contexts, and how they formulate and select queries, in order to improve existing tools and the overall search experience.
I led this research project end to end. I worked closely with an analyst, observing and interpreting behavioral data extracted from analytics tools.
User tests were conducted and moderated across three countries: France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
I synthesized research insights and presented them to multiple PMs and designers across product teams in Amsterdam, influencing the strategy for Decathlon’s search and navigation menu.
Discovery research on Rental
Understanding the reasons behind a significant drop-off rate on the local rental website, in order to inform design decisions and identify improvement opportunities.
Information architecture in navigation menu
Understanding how customers interpret the current sport-based information architecture, with the aim of improving navigation and product findability from the main menu.
This project was led by a Staff Researcher based in Amsterdam.
My role was to adapt the protocol to the Italian context, observe unmoderated closed card sorting sessions, and synthesize findings.
Usability of zoom in product page
Understanding how customers zoom and navigate the media gallery on product pages to improve usability and identify design opportunities.
This project was led by a Senior Researcher based in Amsterdam.
My role was to interview Italian customers and contribute to the synthesis of insights and actionable recommendations for the design team.
