Challenge
To create an online store where users can easily shop for furniture, be inspired during the process and have live help readily available.
Deliverables
Strategy | User report | Persona | Initial Sketches | Wireframes | Prototypes
Role
Designer - as the solo designer for this project, I was responsible for the entire design process.
Process
Research
The first thing I did was to make sure I understood the clients goals and target audience; what exactly did they want to get out of the website. I summed it up in 3 points:
1. A simple and effective store.
2. To make it clear that they provided live support and inspiration for users.
3. Less focus on flashiness, more on the furniture.
Once I understood their goals, I moved on to user research. I casually interviewed 8 people (5 homeowners and 4 apartment renters) about their furnishing experiences in the past. I posed questions such as:
1. What was your experience like when you shopped for the furniture you currently have?
2. If you decide to refurnish your home, what would you do differently?
3. What will set one online store apart from others?
4. Do you already know the style you’re going for before shopping?
5. Will having professional help through the process be helpful to you?
Based on the responses they gave me, I found out that furniture shopping can be very daunting for many. The pressure to have a perfect picture decor, coupled with the overwhelming nature of some online stores, makes the process hard. Those that are able to find help with store agents often have to wait days to receive that help. So with this information, here are the main user challenges:
Furniture shopping gets overwhelming
So easy to lose inspiration or not have any
Not enough professional help by the stores
Synthesize
With this understanding, I came up with they key points to focus on when designing the store that will satisfy both the client and users.
Now that I have a better understanding of what users would like out of the store, I was able to build a persona.
Persona
Ideate
Sketches
I put my ideas into sketches to steer me in the right direction of what the store was potentially going to look like.
Wireframes
Homepage
Product page
Living room page
Contact page
Prototypes
Once I was satisfied with my wireframes, I moved on to the prototyping phase.
HOME PAGE
Simple typography adopted to keep in minimize distractions and ensure consistency.
Section at bottom to tell users about live help available.
Images used focus on the furniture while also providing inspiration.
PRODUCT PAGE
Recommendations based on product selected
Clear, concise and important details about product
Similar products included at bottom to give users a few more options.
LIVING ROOM PAGE
Highlighted furniture at the top of page.
Simple organization of furniture types makes it easy for customers to navigate.
Helpful tip included on page to guide users.
More inspiration via picture at bottom.
CONTACT PAGE
More information about help available at users request
Click-through
To demonstrate how users can interact and find what they are looking for, I created a click-through of the prototype. It shows a user shopping for living room furniture, sees the “most popular item” highlighted at the top of the living room page and decides to explore it further.
Interactive Prototype
Iterate
To test the effectiveness of the store and solutions provided for our challenges, I presented the prototypes to the same users I interviewed in the beginning of this study and here’s how things went:
8 out of 8 confirmed it was not overwhelming to browse through. They expressed how simple and easy on the eye it was.
8 0ut of 8 were glad about the live help that was available to them. If they ever need a second opinion on their choices or simply needed clarification on something, they didn’t have to wait forever for it.
7 out of 8 found the sprinkles on inspiration useful. Seeing how certain furniture paired with other things were helpful in putting together their furnishing styles. The other user was already set on their mood board they had prepared.
Conclusion & After-thoughts
This case study was quite interesting in coming up with solutions that will work excellently well. Finding the right balance of text to image was challenging. I’m satisfied with the typography I chose and the simple color palette. Overall, I feel confident in my design and final product and thrilled it solved the problems presented.