ROYAL VELVET

Seasonal product line showcase

challenges

  • Visitor retention
  • All products needs to be accessible from landing page
  • Products need visitor-friendly categorization

Goals

  • One action away from a product the visitor likes
  • Intuitive product card UI
  • Increase purchase conversion at on eCommerce product page

UX Metrics

  • Product findability high in user testing
  • Users utilizing functionality for their intended purposes
  • Low abandonment to Page Views Per Visitor ratios.

Documentation:

Wireframes deck with functional annotations
THE BRIEF

Consumers still buy products whose advertising promises them value for money, beauty, nutrition, relief from suffering, and social status.

— David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising

JC Penney approached MXM to build a product site that would introduce customers to the Royal Velvet product line in a dedicated responsive website experience.

MY ROLE
THE TEAM
Concept a solution for the presentation of the product line to communicate the value proposition to the viewers in order to increase traffic and sales to the e-commerce store in a responsive web format. The design of the website, feature and functionality creation, development specification to ensure a deliverable that matched the desired final product. Also, visual design, photography specifications.
  • UX / UI designer
  • Project manager
  • Creative director
  • Art director
  • Art director

The business idea was to drive traffic to this landing site and increase awareness of the brand Royal Velvet, the value proposition of the products to increase sales on the JCPenney website.

The value proposition is quality detailed home accessories.

APPROACH

The creative director tasked the designers to each come up with a concept design that we would present the client for approval. One designer went with a design that centered around the quality of the products, such as the material, the dyes, etc... Another designer went with a concept that featured the artist's workshop. My idea was to make the products as accessible as possible, with a Pinterest style product cards, categorized, and sortable using tags.

Customers are not designer, they won't have a designer's sensibilities or even care about the craftsmanship of something until they're invested in it. My hypothesis was to show the products, allow someone to find something they like, and then they can dig deeper into the details.

EXECUTION

Here is some explanation about what is going on in it and how I came to those decisions.

  • Flat simple color reduces the visual noise, focusing attention where I want them to.
  • Tagline high, near the logo, readable.
  • I chose an item that showed a great detailing pattern. Also, it's bedding, it's the item that most visitors would own. As opposed to say, window treatments.
  • Highly visible JCP logo, leveraging the strong brand, and letting viewers know where to purchase.
  • Simple instructions on how to use the toolbar.
  • Created categorization system for the products. Based on the # of products, the toolbar serves as sorting order, not a filter.
  • Large photos of the products. The product images were the most important element to show.
  • Created tagging system for products for use with the tool bar, or on their own.
  • Alternate view of products for larger visibility.

Because development was being done off-site, there is a greater chance of the final product not functioning as designed. I wrote up very clear functional specifications. describing all the possible scenarios. This resulted in very speedy development with few road blocks.

Based on the category of items, I recommended an additional value add that would educate potential customers on how they could use the products. This was an extra effort to build, but the sign-ups create long-term value.

    CONCLUSION

    Lessons learned

    This project had a very clear purpose, to drive traffic to JCP website, and increase sales of the Royal Velvet brand of goods. Over the course of the research I did I learned a few things:

    • The value in e-mail marketing, the increase in sales. E-mail marketing is still very effective (40% more than social media- McKinsey & Company)
    • Creating production specifications, the photographer, and videographer.
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