THE HOODIE CAVE WEBSITE DESIGN

My primary role in this project was to lead the website design for an online sweatshirt store with customization options. My responsibilities included conducting research and interviewing potential users, creating digital and paper wireframes, developing low- and high-fidelity prototypes, conducting usability studies, considering accessibility, and continuously iterating to improve designs and ensure a better experience.

The main objective of this project was to design a website that offered an efficient sweatshirt customization tool while maintaining a simple and intuitive user flow. My design sought to solve navigation and functionality issues that users experienced on other similar platforms, while also offering a pleasant and hassle-free shopping experience.

The website is aimed at two main groups:

1. Individual users between 12 and 50 years old, interested in purchasing sweatshirts with a unique or personal design.
2. Companies looking to sell customized products under their own brand.

The main challenges that arose throughout the project included:

1. Personalization Tool: Other existing platforms with similar tools presented minor issues, being unintuitive, limited in functionality, or visually unappealing.
2. Navigation: Lack of clarity and overload of options hindered the purchasing experience.
3. Payment Process and Screens: Lack of clear information or the inability to edit data caused frustration for users.

To better understand user needs, I conducted interviews that I then transformed into problem statements, empathy maps, and user journey maps. All of this helped me identify key pain points.

Based on a competitive audit and research, I began developing paper wireframes for some of the website’s key pages, then created a sitemap and began developing digital wireframes, prioritizing the navigation and layout of key elements.

I conducted a small usability study with 6 participants that revealed key findings for design improvement.

Using the results of the usability study as a basis, I made changes to the mockups to improve the user experience.

Through this project, I learned the importance of small details in UX design and how they can significantly impact the user experience. Visual order, simple navigation, and intuitive functionality were key to creating a website that meets user expectations. Of course, this is a lengthy process, but usability studies allowed me to identify areas for improvement that I hadn’t initially considered.

In the near future, I will continue working on improving this project, conducting additional usability tests for continuous design enhancements. I will also explore new features that can contribute to improving the user experience and addressing potential new areas of need.

If you’d like to see more details about this project and access the app prototypes, check out this presentation. Thanks for checking out my work!