SOLUTION + IMPACT
In the winter of 2021, I led the website redesign of the women’s vintage clothing store Closet from Hell, overhauling the UI and overseeing an improved visual standard; leading to a 35% increase in conversion rate within the first month of implementation, a $150,000 end-of-year profit, and a feature on CTV News.
DATE
January 20th - February 17th, 2021
TYPE
UX/UI Design, Website Redesign, Branding Strategy
TOOLS
Figma, Shopify, Adobe Creative Suite
TEAM
Ellixs Tulagan, Connor MacAskill, Erik Tran, Garrett Schoffro, Braeden Nicholson, Devin Zhuo
ROLE
As the sole UX/UI designer on my team, I spearheaded the redesign of Closet From Hell's website, conducting user research, organizing user flows and navigation, and creating the final design.
Working alongside a graphic designer, business analyst and developers in conjunction with the lead stakeholder.
PROBLEM SPACE
When Closet From Hell approached us, they had only been in existence for two weeks, however, her store was already ranked in the top 15% of stores that launched the same week as her on Shopify.
While this was a great starting point, the website needed improvements and a modern look.
Some of the issues were:
They didn't have a logo nor a consistent branding guide.
The website had poor SEO, as the website appeared on the fourth page of Google. Further, 86% of Kelsey’s customers had come from Instagram where she had a previous connection with them.
We wanted a way to keep customers returning to the website. Attracting new customers was one thing, however, her business hadn't been in business that long, and validating their returning customer rate at that point would be perilous.
RESEARCH METHODS
WEBSITE AUDIT
Together with my web developer, Devin, we conducted a website audit to explore the technicalities, possible edge cases, and overall usability and functionality of the website as-is.
Our major findings were:
She was using Shopify's Debut theme, a very minimal and bland theme that resulted in the website lacking any overall 'mood,' with stock images being used as the hero image slideshow
Website navigation needed some cleaning up. There were duplicate menu items in the footer, and no social media visible.
Her main strength was her products and how she displayed them. All product photos were consistent, taken on the same background and the same lighting, with personalized descriptions making it feel personable and relatable.
USER INTERVIEWS
I conducted user interviews with 5 of Kelsey's previous customers to better understand her users. We were looking for people who had spent the most money and if possible, were returning customers of Closet From Hell.
Interesting insights:
“What interests you about vintage clothing?”
“I love the aesthetic and the message behind vintage clothing. Fast fashion is really bad for the environment and we’re really in this era now of bringing back fits from the past.”
“What are the (three) most important things for you when shopping for clothing online?”
“Definitely being able to find something I want easily, and if there’s a lot of details and pictures in the product description.
Also, free shipping and reviews is a big thing but I feel like every website has that these days.”
SUMMARY:
This interview format was really helpful for us to understand:
1) what our user’s mental models were when shopping from Closet from Hell,
2) what branding strategies and UX goals we should consider and implement for the new redesign.
We took this new information and created a User Persona for us to reference to keep us on track within the project and remind ourselves who we’re trying to solve for.
USER PERSONA
BRAND & DESIGN STRATEGY
“How might we create an authentic user experience for Closet From Hell’s users?”
MOODBOARD AND IDEAS
Closet From Hell came to us without any brand identity. They had no logo, a go-to color palette, or any fonts for branding.
To solve this, we put together a branding package that would establish all of these components so that the website, social media, and any other digital platforms would look and feel consistent.
Eventually, we delivered a new logo (long form and icon), and color scheme that gave off a classic and timeless atmosphere to the brand: fun, fashionable, and eco-conscious.
Old “Logo” 😔
NEW LOGO! 😍
UX GOALS
💡 Reduce the cognitive load of user's mental models. Allow a customer to view and buy an item in less than 10 clicks.
💡 Make the website easily scannable and aesthetically pleasing.
💡 Ensure the user flow is intuitive and easily navigated, through consistency and use of common e-commerce UI and patterns.
CONSTRAINTS
⛔ Site speed and responsiveness
⛔ Incorporating SEO Keywords
⛔ Pre-existing online presence (social media)
INITIAL WIREFRAMES
Wanting to do something similar to our mood boards, I created some preliminary wireframes of the new website on a theme called Palo Alto.
After review, however, Kelsey wasn't a big fan of the theme and suggested we pivot to a new Shopify theme called Mr. Parker.
They wanted a theme that had a lot more white space, and a simple font, as opposed to the serif/mono combination I came up with. The new theme ticked off all the boxes she wanted in a store: The luxury of white space, great layouts, and high customizability. All the sample shops that used this theme also matched her vision so we worked together to work on something better than what I had come up with.
FINAL DESIGN ITERATION
QUICK HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY OF CHANGES:
ADDITIONS:
🆕 Revamped Navigation (Banners for each category)
🆕 Hover opens secondary images
🆕 Ability to Filter based on Color or Size
🆕 Created Blog, About Us, Shipping Policy Pages
🆕 Mailing List Popup with Discount Code
🆕 Floating Action Button for Customer Support
FIXES:
🔧 Separated Shorts from Jeans
🔧 Removed Duplicated Items from Footer
DESIGN RESULTS
Closet From Hell's new website re-design launched successfully on February 12, 2021, three and a half weeks after project initiation.
HOW DID WE DO?
🎉 44% Customer Return Rate
🎉 Sales margin increased by 18%
🎉 35% increase in online store conversion rate
WHAT WENT WELL?
👌 Had insightful user interviews we were able to use for the website redesign
👌 Cultivated a strong, productive relationship with important stakeholders
👌 Created a strong, timeless brand image
WHAT WOULD I DO NEXT?
Unfortunately, our time spent with Closet From Hell was only a month long. Given more time with this project, I would have loved to conduct usability testing on the latest iteration of the website to better understand user's interaction patterns and discover any potential issues.
Follow-up interviews with the people from the first round of user interviews.
Since every item in her store had a stock of only one, we chose not to add the ability to add reviews. If I could go back, I would try and add customer testimonials somewhere on the website.
Check out Closet From Hell today!