Ecommerce homepage redesign
Showcasing a unique Ecommerce experience
Client: Wescover
Team: 2 UX designers
Duration: 3 week sprint
My role: UX research, usability testing,
UX/UI design
Problem
Wescover noticed a high bounce rate of first time visitors to their website homepage. They brought us in to understand how people view the homepage and conduct a redesign based on our insights.
Solution
Homepage redesign that better articulates Wescover’s unique value and brand identity to first time visitors.
Some background
Who is Wescover?
(from Wescover’s website)
Defining target user
Targeting first time visitors
16,710 creators sell their art and home decor on Wescover’s site. The company is currently looking to expand their customer pool.
“We have an established creator network- we are looking to engage first time visitors to our site”
Target users
Two groups of visitors
First time visitors include:
Homeowners purchasing specialty items for their homes
Interior designers making purchases on behalf of clients
Interview insights
Investigating first time visitor site perceptions
We conducted interviews with first time site visitors including potential customers and interior designers.
“Looks like there’s a lot of personality behind the creators... but I don’t know if it’s like an “Etsy-type” of a shop.”
— Local Art Aficionado
“There’s a sense of discovery, which is lovely… but it doesn’t feel like there’s a sense of order.”
— New Homeowner
“Looks like they make some type of pottery decorations?”
— Interior Designer
Copy this: Wescover’s scope and purpose is unclear
According to interview insights the homepage is not presenting a clear picture of who the company is. Interviewees guessed what Wescover did, but were generally not able to grasp the full scope of Wescover’s offering from looking at the homepage.
C&C analysis
Studying competitors to understanding the bounce rate
Inquiry: Is page structure affecting user engagement?
Methods: heuristic, feature and layout analyses
Layout Analysis
Wescover’s layout is outside the norm
Competitors have 5+ concise homepage sections to browse through, Wescover has 4, and they span a comparatively larger area per section
Heuristics / Feature Inventory
Attractive, functional, but missing some conventions
Wescover’s site is simple to navigate and aesthetically pleasing, but missing some key competitive features
The design challenge
Items, Creators, and Spaces - capturing all at a glance
With our research in hand, we began ideating on how to clarify who Wescover is to users. Wescover is not only a site where customers make a purchase; customers also connect with creators and discover items to purchase in various public and private venues. This is something that differentiates the company, and needs to be expressed to first time visitors in an understandable way.
Ideation
Keys to success
We identified key areas to improve to better convey Wescover’s scope:
Implementing A/B testing
We created two designs with different images, text, and layout and conducted usability tests to understand how UX writing, images, and content layout affect perception of the company
A/B testing insights
We were excited to see a perceptible shift in first time visitor impressions of Wescover’s site after our redesigns.
Success: Deepened emotional connection to company and clear understanding that you can purchase specialty items
We found that the connection with creators deepened, as well as the understanding that Wescover sells specialty items internationally.
Room to improve: overemphasis on customization
Participants were unsure about whether all items were customizable, and if the process was collaborative with the artist. For our next iteration, we strove to clarify that there is the possibility to customize some items, but not all. We also strove to show that you can hear the story behind the item and buy from the creator.
Mid to Hi-fi
Synthesizing the good from each design
We took the best elements from each of our designs and implemented some new additions based on feedback from usability testing.
The importance of introduction
We understood that when a first time visitor visits Wescover’s site, the top of the home screen is their first impression, so providing visuals and text that embody Wescover is important.
Clickable description bar of Wescover’s offerings
We created a description bar to provide another concise snapshot of who Wescover is and what they do and what they value.
Showcasing Items, Creators, and Spaces
We edited each of Wescover’s sections to better express each concept and also added new call to actions for further interaction and to extend the invitation to the user to dive deeper into the site.
Items
We created two “items” sections to show that you can shop by item type, as well as curated selections.
Creators
The new creators section shows the stories behind the creators, as an invitation to get to know the creators better and highlight the fact that customers can have a deep connection with the creator behind the work.
Spaces
Since Wescover was not getting much interaction with their “spaces” section on their homepage, we designed a couple options in an effort to express to site visitors that they can find and purchase items featured in both public and private spaces on Wescovers’ site.
Hi-fi
Homepage redesign walk through
Reflection
During this client project I delved into UX concept design, with a focus on brand storytelling.
It was interesting to explore how simple visual cues and section order can make a huge difference in perceptions of a site.
It was a great challenge to express a complex and meaningful business concept within a single page, and to find creative ways to introduce people to Wescover.