UX for E-Commerce Case Study
About APD
Independent fashion designer Amy Page Deblasio designs clothing and accessories and uses her unique style to make pieces of wearable art that reach and impact others in a meaningful way. Her bold and exotic designs, created by pairing different patterns, fabrics, colors, and textures, intend to provoke thought and excitement. She pushes conventional norms - engaging the wearer to dare and imagine. An exuberant personality and edgy artistic perspective inspire her designs and express a distinct, flirty urban attitude.
The Challenge
I wanted to create a website for Amy that expressed her brand, speaking directly to her customers through design. Amy's Clients are out of the box thinkers - they are both high fashion and street savvy. Amy didn't want the typical online shopping experience for her site, so we created something that felt more 'her'.
My Role
As the product owner, I worked closely with the designer to build the UX and UI around her aesthetic and customer base. I conducted customer discovery, market research, created user stories, and final design for the site.
Primary Tasks
1. Customers Insights & Ideation 2. Creating user stories 3. User Experience and Interaction Design 5. User Interface Design
Design Tools
User Experience & E-commerce
The metric for good user experience in e-commerce is, somewhat naturally, conversion. I wanted to create user flows that were efficient, easy and delightful. But also, like Amy's clothing, the user experience for her users had to be customize. APD produces limited edition products - it is not a fast fashion shop that has anything at a price for everyone. APD products must be displayed in a way that attracts, and appeals to, her target clients. Each item is handmade and limited edition. There is a story to these pieces. Beyond creating and emphasizing direct call to actions, although that was critical, my job was to tell the story of APD, of each piece, in a compelling, visual way.
As an independent designer with a busy work load, it was also very important to reduce customer support needs for Amy's buyers. The user experience should provide customer satisfaction on the front end as much as possible. This means first and foremost determining what exactly customer satisfaction meant to the likely user. Which leads us to the ever delightful task of user discovery
Customer Discovery
APD designs is luxury fashion, and luxury shoppers are accustomed to, and expect personalization in their shopping experience. So how to provide that experience online? Our first task was to ensure that users felt the personal touch of the designer on each element of the website. I then created a scheduling system so that users could speak with the designer or an associate at a scheduled time for a personal shopping experience. I wanted to create an intimate connection with the brand in the experience of the website, without being overbearing.
User Stories
From Doodles to Design
Setting the Mood
Before starting the UI, I made a mood board. This is something I always do, because 1. it is a delight and 2. it helps me conceptualize what I want the app to look like, feel like, and represent.
Color and Typography
I used the mood board and the ever beloved Google Material Standards to create the primary and secondary color pallets, as well as the typography. I wanted the product to look, clean, trustworthy, and simple. So I chose the simplest typefaces, clean and easy to read, and cool colors
Final Design
Shopping first:
Featured Next
And finally... the introductions:
Social feed:
All about Amy:
