This redesign website revitalizes the Southern Crafted online presence, reflecting the brand’s unique warmth and craftsmanship.
Southern Crafted' s website lacks clarity, appeal, and a strong first impression, leaving users confused when exploring product options and disinterested in learning about the craftsmen.
Inefficient purchasing experience
Fail to reflect south craftsmanship
lack of trust in the product
To help southern crafted's website →
More Clear & Clean
More Warmth & Crafty
More Trustworthy
Process
01 Research
Observe and interview
The insights we gathered from user feedback indicate that we need to improve these information clarity for them.
Card sorting
To ensuring that the organization of content on websites aligns with users' intuitions and enhances the overall user experience. We invited four people to participate in our card sorting activity.
Findings: Users believe that "Shop," "About Us," and "Profile" should be presented as dropdown menus, as this aligns with common shopping website layouts.
Findings: For the promotions, users feel confused by the collection names and would prefer to see images first. As for the featured section, since the craftsmen are not well-known, it would be better to showcase their products alongside their introductions.
Contextual inquiry
To understand how our users feel and navigate the original website, we used the method of contextual inquiry. And came up with the following User Journey Map.
02 Design
Information architecture
We have reorganized the IA of the site, reorganized the structure and classification of the site, aiming to solve the problem of difficult to navigate, as well as hard access to information. In addition, UX writing was used to rename some sections to solve the problem that category names were not intuitive. Feel free to drag the button to see how the as-is site map compares to the To-be site map.
Two version's Prototype
In order to better test customer preference, we create two different versions.
Version1: Aligns with the original site’s elegant style
Version 2: focuses on simplicity and clean.
Color & Typography
Inspired by the store's interior colors
Strong CTA for engagement
Evokes warmth and a Southern charm
Typography ensures easy navigation
03 A/B Testing & Usability Testing
To identify our users‘ habit and optimize the website to be seamlessly and attractive, we used the method of User Testing and A/B Test.
Test Result & Insight
User Prefer…
Icons for information
Images in the reviews
More details in recommendation
Big CTA button for quick purchase
Craftsmen
Balance between Craftsmen & Products
Interaction is good but no over interaction
Visual lay out should help providing information
Hypothesis
To identify our users‘ habit and optimize the website to be seamlessly and attractive, we used the method of User Testing and A/B Test.
Hypothesis 1
Placing the search bar at the top left and adding an “Orders & Sign In” dropdown in the header will improve navigation efficiency.
This layout doesn't align with user expectations—users typically prefer to see the "shop" option in the top left and the search bar in the top right.
Hypothesis 2
Using friendly and warm images will increase users' connection with our brand's values.
Testers spent 50 seconds on the homepage, with 13 seconds on the hero image. They described the website as warm, elegant, and welcoming.
Hypothesis 3
Placing the category bar within the collection section will enhance user interaction.
Users enjoy being able to click directly onto the categories and start their shopping journey right away
Hypothesis 4
Directly showcasing the craftsmen's work instead of merely displaying their photos is more likely to capture user interest and encourage further exploration.
Users don’t know what this section was for. They have to read the text to realize it was about craftsmen. Besides, it requires an extra action, which makes it less intuitive.
Then
We iterate
We iterate iterate
We iterate iterate iterate
Users often have a wide range of opinions—even completely contradictory ones. As designers, it's important not to follow every suggestion blindly but to apply our own judgment and insight. Every design iteration will have both supporters and critics; user feedback is valuable as a reference, yet it shouldn't dictate every decision. No design can satisfy everyone, so we must embrace imperfection.
