Brooklyn Artisans Co. (BAC) is a collection of local crafters and DIY-ers selling their creations under one shop—bringing joy to those who seek unique or handmade goods. The store has been selling on Etsy for over a year, accumulating a significant amount of sales and customer reviews. Their short-term goal is to build an independent website as the store becomes more established with more artisans and product offerings.
The store owner approached me to design a responsive website so that when they are ready to transition away from Etsy, they will have a strong blueprint to follow.
Existing in competitive marketplaces like Etsy can be difficult to establish a business as a full-fledged shop. It can also force customers to be overwhelmed by the oversaturation of similar handmade products being sold.
Establish a unique online presence different from their Etsy profile—somewhere their artisans will be proud to sell their goods, as well as share their stories.
After interviewing several participants, it can be assumed that shopping for handmade or unique items are generally ubiquitous across several types of customers. All participants frequently visit Etsy and strongly emphasized the same frustrations despite their personal needs.
It has become difficult to differentiate which stores are actually small businesses of handmade products and not resellers of mass-produced items.
The shopping experience can get overwhelming because of the extensive amount of products to look through.
All participants value uniqueness, good quality, supporting small businesses, and customer reviews
Participants expressed that learning about artisans’ stories give them more confidence in their purchases, and makes them feel more emotionally connected
Participants seek honest transactions—trust in sellers builds confidence in purchases
After analyzing the interview results and determining the key findings, I created the following personas that encapsulate the spectrum of customers who enjoy shopping for unique or handmade goods.
I focused on assessing online stores that sell unique and handmade goods. My objectives were:
In addition to personas, I visualized the present and future states of the customer experience through storyboards. Having these assets to reference throughout the design process helped keep intentions and design priorities on track.
Present State: The customer gets frustrated with spending hours on marketplaces only to buy a product that didn't meet her expectations
Future State: The customer can easily build trust with the shop, giving them more confidence in their purchase.
With the persona's frustrations and goals in mind, I anticipated user expectations and how they would navigate the BAC website using a flowchart. Users are able to easily flow through the interface in ways that benefit their immediate shopping needs. The pages created to address the lack of trust are easily accessible and are meant to enhance the overall shopping experience.
While constructing the website's architecture, I focused on giving users opportunities to explore via multiple touchpoints on each page. They can easily learn more about the store, the artisans, and the craft behind each category of products.
When it comes to purchasing unique goods, there is always a story to be told behind the product. My research has shown that most customers benefit from learning more about sellers. Each artisan profile gives customers full access to learn as much as they want.
Being a small business owner these days often requires creating content that emotionally connects them with their customers. Giving the artisans a platform to store their content, allows them to provide customers with a more premium shopping experience.
Webinar Library: A collection of educational videos that covers the breadth of the artistry and craftsmanship of handmade goods.
Instagram Lives Library: An archive of social media engagements giving a peek into the artisans' more personal, "fun" side of the business.
The key to successful event registration and engagement is ensuring attendees are well-informed about the event and able to quickly sign up.
Participants expressed even more interest in learning about the artisans, so I added sections that highlight their creative values and favorite art pieces.
Although participants liked having artisan background information to read, they expressed a preference to watching a video as an alternative to learning more about the artisan.
Test participants wondered where to access the artisans' social media profiles. I added links on each artisan-specific page, and created a share feature for the events.
Some participants felt that the text blocks for the event details were bulky, so I broke it down into bullets and made the information easier to scan.
Test participants expressed delight when navigating throughout the prototypes—exploring with confidence and ease. The main flow of navigating from the homepage to event registration had a 100% success rate.
All participants conveyed that these opportunities to learn and connect with artisans would encourage them to frequently return to the website.
I was tasked to redesign the existing logo and brand identity to reflect the store's growth as a fun Brooklyn-based company with edge. I took inspiration from the Brooklyn brownstone neighborhoods and general NYC landscape, while utilizing organic and flowing elements.
Remaining on track is vital to progressing a project in a timely manner. It can be easy to get lost designing screens that may not be used for testing. Looking back at a defined flowchart can help prioritize what needs to be done.
In places where I felt more information was better, my test participants conveyed interest in having the information be presented in a different format (e.g. instead of just a 4-paragraph long description, include a video to watch as an alternative to learning more).
I would continue building out the other parts of the website:
