Roles: UX Researcher | UI Designer
Scope: 2 Week |Responsive Web Concept | January 2019
Tools: Sketch | Invision | Zeplin | Pen & Paper
The Challenge
This was a two week design process to research and create low-mid fidelity wireframes and prototype. I proceeded on with this project to create a practical e-commerce witchcraft shop for mobile and web.
Ritual Overview
Ritualcravt online was created in 2015, for home-made provisions, as well as creations made by selectively sourced, local craftspeople and artists. They create jewelry, ritual goods, and herbal products, as well sourcing crystals and minerals, antiques and more for sacred spaces. You can also browse and schedule classes in different aspects of the arts. Some of these include: tarot reading, palmistry, astrology, and rituals.
“I opened RC as an alternative to New Age and metaphysical stores as I was having trouble finding goods that appealed to me. I believe in sustainable and ethical sourcing, small batch making and handcrafting, and magic that works. Ritualcravt is an alchemy of all of those things, curated especially for dark hearts and folks who understand the liminal nature of our world. ”
Cravting Research
I conducted an online competitive business analysis, and found that RC has a strong online presence in comparison with their local competitors. Since witchcraft supplies is a niche market I also took a look into larger e-commerce competitors, such as; Etsy, Happy Soul, and Good Moods, to find how they prioritize their products, who their target market might be, and how they were using hierarchy.
Looking into their social media presence was very insightful on the community they have created. Ritual Cravt has over 6.8k followers on Facebook and 75k followers on instagram. By looking at their current platforms you can see they are big on a dark and moody atmosphere.
User Interviews
Over the course of three days I conducted interviews through social media, email and in person. I ended up interviewing 15 people across the country. After using an Affinity Map, these key insights made themselves present: Users
felt overwhelmed on the homepage.
want more detailed information about the product they are planning to purchase.
have a tight knit community and really support local.
want a less stressful checkout process.
Personas
After synthesizing all of my research findings, I crafted two personas of potential users. The age range of interviewees was 18-62 years old. 4 people interviewed identified as men and 11 were women.
Marjorie, 58
“ I enjoy making dream catchers, and balms for my family and friends. “
Samuel, 22
" I love meditating and bringing people towards their focus and purpose. “
Putting pen to paper
To start the design process I got out my notebook and started drawing everything that came to mind.
Once I figured out a design direction that I wanted to do, I started to create mid-fidelity wireframes. Before going into high-fidelity designs I conducted usability testing with an Invision prototype.
Some changes needed to be made:
Users did not like the typography.
The product cards felt too large.
Users needed an intuitive way of contacting the shop.
“My Cart” and “Checkout” needed to be separated to prolong the checkout process.
Viability
I took the iterations and feedback from usability testing to create high-fidelity pages. I chose to focus on the persona Marjorie, who goes through the purchasing process.
Styling Decisions
Since Ritual Cravt boasts handcrafted, ethically sourced provisions, I chose a color palette that felt earthy and kept with the dark atmosphere that they already have created. Earth tones create a warm, soothing environment. They tend to make us feel calm and invited. Ritual Cravt’s community is tight knit, I did not want to drastically change their look.
I went with a Sans Serif font for legibility, clarity, and modern feel in content writing. Sans Serif fonts more legible and easier to read in small sizes, which is why I went with Asul and Roboto for mobile and web.
