Context
Beaverton Kitchen Cabinets and Stone Inc. is a 13+ year, trusted local retailer for clients who are looking to build, construct, and design their dream kitchen and bath. The shop specializes in cabinetry, stone countertops, wood flooring, tiles, hardware, and building materials for kitchen and bathroom remodeling.
Solution
To solve for this, I came up with a 4 part solution:
Challenge
This mom and pops retail store has not updated their landing page since 2010. Their primary concern is outdated information. Another concern was their need for self-service support to keep up with the demands of customers.
Research & Discovery
To understand the problem a little bit better, we started by interviewing the customers who shop for kitchen and cabinetry in-store. Based on our research, we identified 2 main personas, the general contractor and the homeowner.
Crafting the experience
Planning the steps
With the goals redefined, I mapped out the two most likely tasks that Beaverton Kitchen Cabinets customers are looking for.
Picturing the experience
By mapping out the collected data, it helps me and my client put the customers' feelings and frustrations into perspective.
Reflections
For this website, I tried to incorporate a familiar navigation while introducing a new workflow to BKC. While the redesign project for the cabinetry retail store's website was completed successfully in Figma, the implementation phase faced an unexpected hurdle. The client had not yet acquired the necessary e-commerce platform (Shopify) to support the full functionality of the new design. This situation led to a partial implementation of the redesign, focusing on improving the existing static website rather than launching a fully-fledged e-commerce solution.
Compromises and Adaptations
As a result of these limitations, we had to adapt our approach:
Static Update: The current website was updated with the new visual design and improved user interface, enhancing the overall look and feel.
Future-Ready Design: The Figma designs were created with e-commerce functionality in mind, ready for future implementation when the client obtains Shopify.
Partial Feature Implementation: While we couldn't implement the full e-commerce capabilities, we focused on improving product displays and information architecture.
Learning Outcomes
This project provided valuable insights into the importance of aligning client resources with design ambitions. It highlighted the need for:
Clear communication about technical requirements early in the project
Flexibility in design implementation to accommodate client constraints
Creating scalable designs that can be implemented in phases
Future Plans
The client has expressed their intention to transition to Shopify in the future. When this occurs, we will be well-positioned to quickly implement the full e-commerce design, including:
Product checkout functionality
Appointment booking system
Dynamic product catalogs
This phased approach allows the client to immediately benefit from the design improvements while laying the groundwork for future e-commerce capabilities.
Mapping out the commerce market
I performed a competitive analysis of the e-commerce landscape from the customer perspective. This gave me ideas of what users might be familiar with.
Additionally, by referencing and mapping out the check out flow of other big box cabinet retail stores and small local businesses, I was able to identify when and where the customer journey experience could be improved at BKC.
Role
UX Research, Visual Design, Prototyping, UX Writing, Product Design, Usability Testing
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Miro, InDesign, Procreate
Constraints
BKC is a small business with a limited budget in marketing. The client also needs to easily update the website which may cause some design limitations.
Timeline
2 months
Creating digital content
From our day-to-day experience at BKC, we found that quite a bit of customers requested for a product catalogue. Many customer’s were also confused about our cabinet sizing. To meet their demands, I designed a product catalogue and cabinet size sheet using Adobe InDesign.
Key concerns:
Whether we sell by square feet or slab size
What new cabinet and countertop options BKC has stocked over the years
What cabinet and countertop slab sizes BKC carries
How many days cabinet assembly takes before order is ready for pickup
What information they need to prepare before a design consultation
Due to lack of information, customers result in calling the shop which further slows down the customer support.
We surveyed 20 customers who shopped for kitchen and cabinetry in-store and conducted 6 semi-structured interviews. Based on the survey and interview findings, we identified the following customer pain points in shopping process:
Existing Website
Homepage
UI design needs a refresh, outdated look
No longer carry “Special Order Cabinets”
“Cinnamon Alder”, “Coffee Glaze”, are out of stock
Brought in new cabinets style, “The Dalton Series”
Granites Page
As the business is shifting its focus from granites to quartz, many of the granite colors have already been discontinued and are limited in stock.
Product listing needs to be updated to reflect that.
Below is a brief overview of what we will be working with.
Flow 1: Book Appointment
Customers can quickly check pricing for budgeting purposes or directly purchase cabinets.
Flow 2: Self-Checkout
Customers can purchase cabinets and quickly check product listing for prices. This will alleviate the workload for sales reps and reduce customers’ wait time for a bid turnaround.
