Corks ecommerce website

 
Corks case study hero image.v2.png

Overview

Corks is a brick & mortar store in LoHi, Denver.  In this concept work, I designed an e-commerce website for Corks that accomplishes an intuitive shopping experience for users while ensuring in-store values and business goals are met.

contributions

User & Stakeholder Interviews, Sketches, Wireframes, Usability Testing, Information Architecture

project Circumstance

2 weeks, low fidelity wireframes and clickable prototype

TOOLS USED

Contextual inquiry, user & stakeholder interviews, affinity diagram, competitive analysis, sketching, prototyping (paper & InVision), usability testing, wireframing (Sketch)

 

research

user interviews

A few classmates & I visited Corks and asked customers open-ended questions using the 5 Whys method to learn what brought them in.

Affinity Diagram

Through user feedback, I learned what kept people coming back was their affordable prices, close proximity to their home/work and the great customer service & wine recommendations they get in store.

observation

No one we spoke to knew Corks offered a unique value proposition: 250 highly rated wines. $15 or less.  Since users can't learn this by speaking directly to staff online, I wanted to make sure that message was clear on the homepage.

 

User Personas

In store interviews helped me develop personas based on 3 main user types: Price Conscious Consumer, Frequent Wine Drinker and Uninformed Drinker

I kept these user's goals, needs & barriers in mind when designing the e-commerce site's feature layout 

 

Early Sketch Iterations

Numerous iterations were sketched to try out different design layouts.

With hundreds of wines, I needed to organize the hierarchy of information to make it easier for users to quickly find what they're looking for.  

 

Usability Tests & wireframes

homepage

  • During usability tests, no one noticed the value prop & were confused over who was rating the wines 
  • I rearranged the homepage features and included a brief summary of how Corks rates their wine.  This resulted in a feeling of good value from users!

Checkout

  • Users thought the checkout process could be more streamlined, so I combined them into one page

Confirmation

  • Users were concerned they might accidentally place the order again since the "place order" button was still visible
  • I removed the modal and created a new page for order confirmation to solve that issue