Challenge
Peregrine Supply Co. is a small, rapidly growing business that makes thoughtful, handmade men’s grooming products using high quality ingredients. As their retail presence is expanding with new wholesale clients, Peregrine wanted to invest in making their brand and products more accessible to their global customer base and new customers online. I was contracted as a web/UX designer to design and build a new online store on a new eCommerce platform that could easily scale with Peregrine’s growth.
Goals
- Shift website’s focus to make Peregrine’s products and brand clear, trustworthy and more accessible to customers
- Host and build website on hosting platform that can support and scale with Peregrine’s growth
Process
Understand
I worked with Peregrine to define their web strategy, goals and needs. This phase was critical for setting project constraints, deadlines and establishing trust that my process and design decisions would meet their expectations and goals.
Design
Drawing on previous experience, I successfully applied my knowledge of eCommerce best practices to Peregrine’s goals and requirements. This was supported by visualizing several iterations of wireframes and mockups to communicate and adjust how content would be organized based on feedback from Peregrine’s co-owners. As there was a lack of reliable user data on their current website, it was important to establish an ideal user flow to evaluate actual customer experiences against once the website launched.
Implementation
During development I encountered some unexpected platform limitations and challenges to implementing the design concept, such as being unable to create filter options when browsing product subcategories. Implementing a simple wholesale solution also proved to be more challenging than we had anticipated. I worked with Peregrine closely in these cases to adapt my designs to find an alternate solution that still met their needs and didn’t create new unforeseen problems.
Impact
Shortly after launch, website traffic and online orders from both wholesale and retail customers steadily increased. The Peregrine team also had positive experiences with managing and fulfilling orders with greater efficiency. This project was the first project that I undertook as a solo UX designer and was responsible for the full design and implementation. It helped develop greater accountability in setting and meeting deadlines, expanded my skills in building strong client relationships and in obtaining good feedback to guide design decisions.