At-A-Glance

Earthen Puppy is a small business in Bangalore, India. It is a sustainable home decor brand. They make candles, earthen planters, wall hangings, and much more. I worked to design the website through three rounds of wireframing, prototyping, and testing. In six weeks, I delivered a complete set of responsive web designs and detailed design systems and worked on the front end to bring the design to life. The website helps spread the word and allows users to place orders online seamlessly without waiting.

See the Prototype

Getting Started

The Problem

Earthen Puppy is an online-only business that started on social media with no physical brick-and-mortar location.  As orders increased, Instagram's inbox was overwhelmed with messages to place orders. Here are the issues:

• Overwhelmed Instagram inbox with increasing order messages

• Decreased response rate due to high volume of messages

• Customers are frustrated due to delays in placing orders

• Lack of efficient order processing system on social media platforms

• Growing pain points expressed by customers regarding the order placement process

Approach

I analyzed the current user pain points and brainstormed a few ideas to help the website translate smoothly. Followed by some testing and iterations.

Insights and findings

• Having to wait for the response to place an order

• Not able to see pictures of the item they’re interested in

• Not able to see the catalog or other options to buy

• Users expect online ordering to be seamless

Solution

• Developed and launched an official website for Earthen Puppy to streamline the order placement process.

• Implemented a user-friendly interface allowing customers to browse products and place orders directly on the website.

• Integrated a secure payment gateway to facilitate seamless transactions.

• Provided clear instructions on social media directing customers to the website for placing orders.

Design Constraint

• The website design must be compatible with all major web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) to ensure a consistent user experience across different platforms and devices.

• The design must align seamlessly with Earthen Puppy's existing brand assets and social media presence, enhancing and reinforcing the company's brand identity across all touchpoints to improve brand recognition and customer trust.

Process

Persona

To understand the users, I harnessed the power of social media analytics. I carefully scrolled through the demographics section of Instagram Insights and took a survey on Instagram stories. I incorporated these findings into the user persona named Priya.

Priya

Age: 25 years old

Location: Bangalore, India

Education: Bachelor's Degree in Business

Bio

Priya is an independent woman who works in a marketing firm. Priya is hardworking, motivated, and social. Her best friend got promoted at their firm. Priya wants to send them a gift hamper swiftly.

Goal

Priya wants to place an order quickly without waiting for a reply on Instagram DMs.

Priya’s User Journey

Sketches

The process begins with my initial ideas and wireframes, then move to mockups, and finally to the high-fidelity prototype. You can see how the approach solves user needs. There are at most two major interaction areas per page to guide users through the user flow they need.

User Flow

After sketching some ideas on the whiteboard, I mapped out the user flow if Priya came to Earthen Puppy's website.

Style Guide

Mockup

Iteration

Learning is a continuous process. Throughout the project, I performed market and competitive research to understand the needs and gaps of this growing space.

Furthermore, I interviewed six users who previously placed orders via Instagram DMs to gather data about our user’s pain points, needs, and motivation. These users had experience ordering candles/planters online.

In this system, customers can effortlessly glide through the catalog and place an order without waiting for a response from the business. It also gives the patron the flexibility and freedom to explore other items and features the business offers.

Prototype

View it here

Impact

• With the website live, Earthen Puppy experienced a significant increase in orders by 28% within the first month.

• The streamlined order process on the website reduced the burden on Instagram's inbox, resulting in improved response times and enhanced customer satisfaction.

• Customers appreciated the convenience of placing orders directly through the website, leading to a positive impact on brand loyalty and engagement.

Looking forward

At the moment, Earthen Puppy’s design work is paused to allow business planning to catch up. The next steps are as follows:

• Design and build more pages and features for the website.

• Iterate and test further wireframe designs based on probable business changes.

• Work on the website and get ready for reopening.