Dara Artisans

eCommerce Website

OVERVIEW

Dara Artisans is an ecommerce startup that operates as a marketplace for skilled artisans from all over the world. Dara ensures all artisans follow fair trade/labor practices and produce authentic handmade products. We designed the initial vision of their ecommerce site. Our objective was to design a shopping experience that expresses the uniqueness of the Dara brand, effectively sells to our target audience, and is feasible to build and maintain.

OUR CONCEPT

We were fascinated by all the stories connected to each product; the culture it comes from, the artisan’s story, and the actual process of making the object. Our concept incorporates these stories into the shopping experience.

MY CONTRIBUTIONS
  • Participated in research and client interviews.
  • Worked with the project management team to define realistic project scoping and timeline.
  • Defined information architecture and developed the sitemap.
  • Defined functionality, content, and general presentation for all pages.
  • Instead of producing formal wireframes, I worked directly with our Art Director, Stephanie, to collaboratively design the pages.
Agency / Project Date

Createthe Group, 2014

Team

Diana Hong, Creative Director
Stephen Nomura, UX Lead
Stephanie Butterworth, Art Director
Rob Matthews, Art Director

dara-a-1

ARCHITECTURE / SITEMAP

We did several iterations with the client to reach a structure that satisfied both our usability concerns and the client’s branding/marketing desires. Our original direction used a more traditional ecommerce navigation pattern, but the client’s marketing needs required a less traditional approach. We were worried about usability. Our compromise was to use the client’s non-traditional approach but make sure space was dedicated on the homepage to explaining how the site is structured.

I owned the entire sitemap development process. Shown here is the final sitemap.

HOMEPAGE

Key objectives on the homepage:

  1. Introduce the brand.
  2. Explain the three ways to browse product and get users to start browsing.
  3. Excite users with inspirational content.
  4. Expose products.

Stephanie produced this comp, but all the thinking, content, functionality, and layout decisions are both of ours. It was a partnership.

Desktop

Tablet

Mobile

PRODUCT DETAIL PAGE

Key moments in the design:

  • Artisan Bio to emphasize the product’s backstory.
  • Iconography for Key Selling Points
  • Oversized product imagery to create a luxury aesthetic.
  • Video example of product in context.
  • Inspirational content, such as a How It’s Made video.

Stephanie produced this comp, but all the thinking, content, functionality, and layout decisions are both of ours. It was a partnership.

dara-c-1