Davidson Fine Art wants an improved website, including e-commerce to showcase their products while maintaining their brand image: “small shop” appeal and great customer service. I designed an e-commerce site that reflect it.
Overview
Client
Davidson Fine Art
My Role
Lead visual designer. UX Designer, and Researcher
Platforms
Desktop and mobile
Tools
Figma, Miro, Google Forms, Trello
Duration
2 weeks
Team
1
THE CHALLENGE
DFA is the oldest and last remaining art store in Downtown St. Pete, FL. Rob Davidson founded the art store intending to provide local art supplies and vintage goods to locals.
Their highest priority has always been given to the face-to-face contact with customers. Although in our current times, this has been difficult. DFA sees an opportunity to support the local community by allowing people to order some products online.
DFA built their website but we’re not pleased with the results.
What was my task?
Through an improved website, including e-commerce, help DFA showcase their products while maintaining their brand image: “small shop” appeal and great customer service.
PROBLEMS
My initial business analysis found 3 problems with the old website
Cluttered
Business research showed that DFA current website was cluttered and overwhelming, especially when it comes to the organization of the main navigation and art inventories.
2. Dated
Initial business analysis showed that the current website looked visually dated and out of touch with modern website design. The portal do not have e-commerce currently.
3. Unintuitive
The current website demonstrated to be unintuitive for user to find what they need as information are scattered and blended in multiple sections.
RESEARCH UNDER TIME LIMITATIONS
All competitors offer e-commerce
Through C & C Analysis, I learned that all DFA’s existing competitors have e-commerce platforms. This showed that DFA is behind on the current market trend.
DFA is challenged by the following external threats:
Competitors have similar services
Nearby art store with e-commerce
Established big name art stores
DEFINING OUR INSIGHTS
Opportunity
How might we make DFA’s e-commerce website modern, organized, and intuitive?
Goals
We converted our 3 key problems into opportunities to solve for during the redesign.
Cluttered to Organized
The redesigned website should have a an organized main menu and navigation displaying key services and features for users to easily to find and navigate.
Dated to Modern
The user interface of the redesigned website should be visually appealing, refreshed, and use the new DFA style guide.
Unintuitive to Intuitive
The new website should be intuitive in helping users to not have to think or confused about where informative is located.
Final Prototype
NEXT STEPS
Desktop
Create additional wireframes
Complete prototype
Create additional pages
Create pre-fill forms
Work on UI
Additional card sorting
Additional usability testing
Additional rough sketches
Additional C & C analysis
Complete hi-fi mockup
Mobile
Complete wireframes for the user flow
Complete prototyping
Conduct additional comparative analysis
Work on UI
Complete hi-fi mockup
Work on overflow prototype
Conduct usability testing
Additional photos
FINAL THOUGHTS
As for my first e-commerce project at General Assembly, it was a great learning experience to balance applying new UX skills, whilst working to learn new skills as I go on with my project.
I enjoyed seeing the groundwork of user research, working through the UX design process from discovery and research, synthesizing research and design strategy to placement, layout design, and then to prototype and usability testing have helped me to grow as someone who is a student who’s applying my knowledge to a project. I learned the importance of rough sketches as it allows me to communicate effectively, quickly, and effectively and then solidifying those to more refined digital prototypes.
I found it valuable to have a growth mindset and have that open and honest conversation about where we were doing great and where I could improve. These steps made a huge difference to the second week of the project, and I was able to make the most of my time for the project.