Austin Gift Company
Simply Weird, Simply Local
Background
This South Austin establishment specializes in unique locally made goods, Texas & Austin staple items, and the products with the iconic “Keep Austin Weird” saying.
Austin Gift Company does not currently have an e-commerce platform that allows its customers to purchase good remotely. We felt that by implementing a responsive website to allow their customers to make purchases remotely, that’ll not only grow their brand but also drastically grow their revenue.
My main objectives were to listen to the user's needs, the client's needs, and to produce a well rounded, responsive, user-friendly, and productive website that put the emphasis on the unique local products.
Research
I conducted multiple methodologies of research that gave me some amazing insights into the business, local & national markets, as well as what the users needs were. I first interviewed 5 users about their online shopping habits and their likes/dislikes about the sites they commonly use. I synthesized this data with an affinity map where I was able to narrow down the commonalities and extract those for implementation.
I then compiled some competitive analysis data from one local company and two national companies. This helped me compare the differences between the markets so I know what elements and layout I should reference in this product.
Ideation
Not having a product to build/redesign from was a challenge for me; I wasn’t experienced in website development and I was at this point very new to UX. So I had to rely on my competitive research and user interviews to help direct my designs based off of e-commerce trends.
With my research and interview data in hand, I was able to sketch out my design ideas onto paper. This was super helpful for me as I was able to empty the brain from all my ideas and see them visually. From here, I took my sketches into Sketch to build some wireframes. This was fun for me as it helped me focus on building my skillset with the design tools and design trends.
Testing
With my wireframes and prototype complete, It was time to get it in front of users and test out the functionality of my design. I asked 6 people in my complex to take a run at three task scenarios I set up for them:
Go to www.austingiftcompany.com and you’d like to know what the store hours are so you can possibly pick up the item or ship it to your home.
Add the highest rated Home item to your cart.
As you are reviewing the shopping bag, you remember that you want to order two of the item.
Each tester was able to navigate the tasks without issues but I had to tell each of them during each task that certain features were not built out yet. Some of the feedback I received from my users was that the Contact Us was a little tough to find and a checkout process breadcrumb trail would be a good addition. I will make those iterations and test in the next steps of the product.
Conclusion
With our extensive research, trivial wireframing & prototyping, and detailed usability testing, we were able to execute our task of creating an e-commerce website for Austin Gift Company with great success. The next steps needed are to expand the site's functionality across all pages, expand the product & categories lists, and bring the visuals into industry standards while testing each step with more users.
