What is the experience? Who is the audience?
The experience is the redesign of gatesnfences.com, a Miami-based e-commerce website specializing in metal gates, fences, parts and accessories. The old website suffers from many design and organization issues which was likely was having the effect of turning away potential customers. In addition to many other issues, the site itself felt cluttered with no sense of hierarchy of elements. There was no consistency – with navigation, with images, with links, etc. There were broken links and some pages could only be reached by going through other pages. There was little-to-no whitespace and the color palette and overall aesthetic was not pleasing or welcoming. It felt a little like a time capsule from the earlier days of the web and it is my job to bring it into the 21st century. Also for its function as an e-commerce site it did not function well at all. It was not easy to consistently add items to your cart, or even get to your cart to see what is in it. All of these factors add up to a frustrating experience for the user, likely resulting in user fatigue and looking elsewhere for their needs, and the site didn’t exactly inspire consumer confidence or feel safe/secure, which is ironic considering the company is selling safety/security products. The target users of the website are homeowners in need of, and in a financial situation to be able to afford, decorative aluminum gates and fences for their properties, as well as contractors in charge of construction projects both residential and commercial. The audience would likely be predominantly male, middle-aged and fairly wealthy for the homeowners, and likely more blue-collar males well-versed in construction methods with a knowledge of what they are looking for in terms of parts for the installation of said gates and fences.
What about the new visual style you are going with is provocative/interesting? Why did I pick it?
For the redesign, simplicity and organization were going to be key. The site suffered from clutter and lack of whitespace – a place for your eye to rest – and therefore felt overwhelming. I wanted to fuse a clean, modern, almost minimal interface with a functional no-frills experience where basic functionality – browsing and finding the products the customer needs is prioritized and then provide a smooth and pain-free way to purchase said items. My target user would appreciate a site that works well, without a lot of fluff, but also should get an aesthetically pleasing experience through the use of proper design principles, even if the average user is unaware of or unable to pinpoint why its a better experience, it should be obvious.
The site has a lot of content so one of the tasks of the redesign was to consolidate and organize that information. I wanted a simple, clear, functional top bar navigation with products nested in drop down menus rather than listed long on the site like it was previously. I knew I also wanted a large, clear high-quality image on the homepage to highlight a product and give an overview of what the site is about/selling. All of the images on the old site are small and filled with a watermark that completely obscures them. Also links to cart and account should be visible and consistent from each page, since this is an e-commerce site.
Even though Fitbit and Chick-fil-A are not related to my site’s product and are selling something completely different, I liked the overall aesthetic of these two homepages. There is simple clean navigation and it is fairly intuitive. The large central image is eye-catching and makes you want to learn more. This stye I observed is a bit of a trend right now, but for good reason. It is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
Bringing it a little closer to my site’s subject matter of home improvement products, I liked how Home Depot’s site is laid out. It features a prominent way to search and nests products in drop down and expanding menus from the top bar navigation panel. Scrolling down it also breaks down products by category visually with simple clickable icons.
In what ways is the example successful?
For the Home Depot site, although there is a lot of information, it is laid out well and doesn’t feel cluttered. It feels organized, clean, and welcoming and makes you confident in doing business with the company. For the Fitbit site, it is very aesthetically pleasing, creates a brand identity, and feels airy and open and very welcoming. Both of these sites utilize a grid system and consistent color palette which is something I have been incorporating in the redesign. I have been only using large-high quality images to showcase professionalism and represent the products and brand well. Both sites have a simple, intuitive homepage that shows you just enough and then is expandable and explorable to find and browse products. I think one of the main challenges in design, and also one of the most important ones is making it look like there is less information than there actually is. It should go without saying that all of these examples function well with no broken links or anything, an they inspire consumer confidence. The user would feel comfortable doing business with these sites and that was my goal for the redesign.
How might you make it even better?
It is my goal to combine the pleasing aesthetic of a site like the Fitbit site with the organization and functionality of the Home Depot website while establishing a brand identity like these two sites clearly have. To make my site better, it is a blend of these things that I will be trying to utilize, with the end goal of a more positive user experience that does not end with frustration and fatigue for the user, but creates a pleasing, intuitive that makes them feel confident doing business with again and again.
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