CURIOSITY COTTAGE APPAREL

Crafting an engaging and ethical shopping experience for families.

Duration: March 2024 - Present
Type: E-commerce platform
Role: Product Designer
Team: 1 Product Manager, 1 Product Designer, 2 Developers, 1 Marketing Lead,

PROJECT OVERVIEW

How can we engage parents and showcase Curiosity Cottage’s mission of sustainability and community impact through an e-commerce platform?

How can we engage parents and showcase Curiosity Cottage’s mission of sustainability and community impact through an e-commerce platform?

Duration: 6 months
Type: Senior capstone project
Role: Lead UX Designer
Team: 1 PM, 2 UX Designers, 2 Developers

THE PROBLEM

It is hard for small businesses to stand out in this market idk.

It is hard for small businesses to stand out in this market idk.

As a small business with a mission to offer sustainable children’s products, Curiosity Cottage faces the challenge of standing out in a crowded market. Traditional e-commerce platforms often focus solely on products, making it difficult for brands with strong ethical values to engage customers in meaningful ways.

*A marine protected area (MPA) is a legally protected area of the ocean that is managed to conserve marine life and habitats.

THE SOLUTION

An e-commerce platform that prioritizes storytelling and interactivity with parents/guardians.

An e-commerce platform that prioritizes storytelling and interactivity with parents/guardians.

To elevate their current brand, I was tasked with designing a new site that not only showcases their products but also tells their unique story, encourages customer participation in sustainability efforts, and fosters a deeper connection with the brand.

RESEARCH: ANALYTICS

Utilizing Google Analytics to identify our customer profiles and understand customer behaviors.

Utilizing Google Analytics to identify our customer profiles and understand customer behaviors.

To begin the website design process, I first analyzed the user traffic on the business's temporary Shopify website using Google Analytics & Shopify Analytics. I discovered the following:

Biweekly Meetings

The most significant portion of our collaboration with LOF was our biweekly meetings with LOF's program manager. Throughout these meetings, we worked with them to discuss the beach, the foundation, and gather requirements for the application

Volunteer Interviews

In addition to our biweekly meetings, we had the opportunity to visit the beach and interview some of the foundation's biologists and volunteers working on-site. This was crucial in helping us understand what would be most beneficial to conservation efforts from the perspective of those who are most familiar with and knowledgeable about the beach's ecosystem, visitors, and challenges.

Bounce rate of 90%

Target audience:

Women aged over 60

Drop off rate on __

RESEARCH: HEURISTIC EVALUATION

Performing a heuristic evaluation to further investigate potential reasons behind the high bounce-rate.

Performing a heuristic evaluation to further investigate potential reasons behind the high bounce-rate.

Our team did not have the resources to perform any user interviews at the time, so instead, I decided to perform a heuristic evaluation, analyzing potential pitfalls of the current website using Nielson's 10 Usability Heuristics.

  1. Lack of Awareness

Volunteers expressed that most visitors are unaware of crucial MPA rules and regulations necessary to preserving the beach's ecosystem. Visitors, especially children, often unknowingly break these rules, highlighting a need for clear and accessible information regarding beach conservation.

  1. Assisting Visitors

Volunteers reported challenges in efficiently assisting beach visitors with essential amenities such as finding parking, restrooms, and general directions. This is due to the scarcity of volunteers as well as visitors simply being unaware that volunteers are available to help. Existing resources are described as outdated and difficult to find or navigate.

  1. Getting Visitors Involved

Our partner highlighted a key requirement for the app: a citizen science program enabling visitors to contribute their observations of beach wildlife to the LOF database. Volunteers and LOF staff stressed that this not only enriches their data but also empowers visitors to actively participate in and learn about beach conservation efforts.

RESEARCH: COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Analyzing competitor sites in the child-product space to identify best practices and areas for improvement in the new design.

After a thorough analysis of three competitor child-product brands, I was ___

IDEATION

Using my research, I explored different design directions and how to make the website design stand out through wireframing.

Through extensive wireframing, I was able to visualize potential layouts and flows, allowing us to identify the most effective structure for the website. Regular brainstorming sessions with the product manager and lead developer were crucial for ideating on features we wanted to include and understanding the technical constraints.

SITEMAP

How to get customers engaged? Blogs and tracking sustainability through accounts.

Duration: 6 months
Type: Senior capstone project
Role: Lead UX Designer
Team: 1 PM, 2 UX Designers, 2 Developers

SITEMAP

I created a sitemap to help streamline the process for both myself and the developers.

Duration: 6 months
Type: Senior capstone project
Role: Lead UX Designer
Team: 1 PM, 2 UX Designers, 2 Developers

BRAND ALIGNMENT & VISUAL DESIGN

I collaborated with the marketing team to bring the wireframes to life by creating detailed mockups in Figma.

Our developers would realize that certain tasks exceeded their skillset or proved to be more time-consuming than they initially anticipated. As a designer, it was my job to address these and adjust the design accordingly, being careful as to not take away from the intended goals of the app. A few examples of a few of the iterations we had to make are described below. 

NEXT STEPS

Continuing development and preparing for user-testing.

Once the project deadline had arrived, our team presented the project at a capstone showcase. The final product included a functioning homepage, map, and wildlife directory. Unfortunately, the development team was unable to implement the full design due to time constraints and technical issues. Dealing with these difficulties also led us to forego usability testing in the interest of time. Despite this, our partner was still satisfied with the end result and what we were able to accomplish within the given timeframe.

REFLECTION

A lesson about the complexity of designing for e-commerce brands and navigating design as a solo designer.

Duration: 6 months
Type: Senior capstone project
Role: Lead UX Designer
Team: 1 PM, 2 UX Designers, 2 Developers