A website redesign was long overdue for Annika Inez, but what needed to come first was a clear brand voice and mission statement, one that emulates the creative and artistic spirit that Annika Inez champions. Once that was defined, I did a quick audit of the existing site. There were general improvements that can be made for the existing site, and on the homepage alone:
Based on a customer insight survey I sent to existing newsletter subscribers, with 38 responses from existing and potential customers.
Works at a large, creative company. She's college educated and mid-career. She's foundationally classic and minimalist, with Acne Studios and Lemaire being some of her favorite brands, and occasionally mixes things up with vintage statement pieces.
She spends her weekends with family, going outdoors, volunteering with her PTA. When she goes out, it's usually drinks with friends in West Village or Brooklyn.
Women ages 20-45,
average 37 y/o
Primarily based in
N. America and Europe
Inclination towards the arts and unique designs
Shopping habits have changed dramatically during the pandemic, and Annika Inez customers have responded showing a gravitation towards:
- Investment, high value pieces
- Timeless styles
- Supporting small businesses
- Sustainable items for long-term use rather than fast-fashion
Most customers like to browse, but the initial thought here was to implement a filtering function for the portion of customers who shop with a specific purchase in mind.
Due to the pandemic, customers are looking more closely at returns and exchange policies online. They're also reading into the company more in wanting to support smaller, more sustainable, and/or minority-owned businesses.
There weren't any huge issues with the existing site — All the product images were professionally shot and the website functions as needed. The main callouts that the customers made were:
- Not enough images of the pieces being worn
- Want better explanation of shipping and returns policies
- A comprehensive size chart for rings would be helpful
- Ability to view by color or have some sort of filtering option
"The jewelry designs are very creative, so it's hard to imagine how it fits"
"I want to see someone wearing the jewelry that I'd like to purchase"
- Introduce more diverse imagery
- Differentiate sections with the inclusion of call-to-actions to explore more
- Give more brand more context through storytelling
I tested my prototype on 14 individuals before presenting my proposed designs to Annika. The biggest confusion in my first design was that I maintained the gallery layout of the category page from the existing site (below). Users were confused by the category page because it looked more like a lookbook rather than a product listing, due to inconsistent photo styles.
With user testing feedback in mind, I designed a category page showing only product images. Because the brand is higher end, Annika doesn't want price to be immediately visible. I therefore proposed that name, price, and color variations, and model image be visible only on hover.
A big part of Annika Inez's marketing direction revolves around inspiring creativity and giving reverence to the small things and moments in life. Knowing these values gave everyone a sense of direction for the company's future outputs. In terms of visuals, one of the biggest visual features the company wanted to include was moving image in a 'diptych' like layout pairing a still image with video.
Presenting my designs helped the team visualize how the site could look, what elements we can pull from the brandbook as it was being finalized, and how we can iterate the design to better match the new branding both in design and copy.
A typographic element Annika wanted to highlight was the juxtaposition of bold and standard font to create emphasis on important words. Neutral and warm tones instead of the greys from the previous site. The navigation was redesigned into a mega menu to showcase more on-model jewelry on hover. Emphasis was given to each collection series / campaign through a hero image, accompanied with copy to describe what the series is about and the inspiration behind them.
Final design post edits by Annika:
See the live Annika Inez site
here.
The Shopify platform is much more intuitive and comprehensive in terms of tracking sales, managing orders, uploading products and collections, etc., compared to Magento 1. The next step is to integrate newsletter marketing through Klaviyo, switching from Mailchimp, as another means of tracking sales, sending automations, and increase traffic. We're able to leverage tools that were not as readily available (or intuitive) on the previous Magento 1 platform.
- Present as much data and research up front - As important as it is to design with a 'user-first' mentality, there are challenges to designing in a more creatively driven industry like fashion, and working with individuals who are more driven by creativity than by usability. Having data and user quotes gets the point across.
- See thing with fresh eyes - Feedback from real users is incredibly valuable -- There are some aspects of the design that I didn't catch because I've worked with the company for a while.
- Provide as much information to the developer as possible - One of the most challenging things about working with a freelance developer is the danger of scope creep, as we continually found design flaws that we hadn't caught in the beginning, causing a few rounds of back and forth with the developer.
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