Alphachanneling
Responsive website design
Alphachanneling is an art business run by the artist.
The business has a huge social media following of over 1 million followers. This is the main channel to attract new customers, and drive traffic to the website where purchases are made. Over the last year or two, the client has seen a dramatic drop in sales, while his site traffic remains high.
The Premise
Use research and design principles to design a website that increases sales conversions.
My Role
UX/UI Designer
Research Methods
Project Goals
Success Measures
Design a new responsive website for Alphachanneling that increases sales
Focus branding and narrative of Alphachanneling.com to help build better customer engagement
Perform site audit interviews to find stumbling points in current site
Comparative analysis to learn what other similar sites are doing better
User testing of prototype to continue iteration
Secondary research
Increase sales conversions on Alphachanneling.com
Give users a meaningful and memorable experience
Tell Alphachanneling’s story and focus on showing the art process
Research
Problem Statement
Alphachanneling is an online art business run by the artist. They have a large following on social media, but their website hasn’t been updated in several years. They currently have a good amount of traffic, but the product sales have diminished over time.
Interview Results - Affinity map
Competitive Analysis
Research Findings
Improved navigation and categories could improve site usability
Categories could be based on image style/color, etc.
Simplify search and make it more prominentClarify digital vs. original print
Remove or clarify quantity discount area
Add quantity selection in item screen
Focus on fine art aspect - process, videos etc.
Branding and visual design needs to focus on world building
Key terms:
- fantasy
- whimsy
- erotic
- spiritual
Interview
Other sites have a variety of layouts that work
Sales vs. art portfolio: some sites don’t focus on sales
Personality and voice are keys to engaging audience
Fine art aspects such as process photos and videos, exhibition history, etc. can lead to a more engaging site.
Organization is key: clear navigation and organizational structures drive sales
Secondary
Research Process
To start the process of information gathering to guide this project, we will do a series of user interviews that will observe users actually moving through the current Alpha Channeling site. We will ask a small set of questions before and after the task to assess the users history with Alphachanneling, and their experience during the task.
Objectives:
Find any obvious stumbling blocks within Alpha Channeling’s shop system.
Understand the user’s overall feelings and view of AC.
See where users are drawn to on the site; do they go straight to the shop? Do they read the about section, etc?
Alphachanneling is a unique business. At the business’ heart is the art of one person, which makes it difficult to compare directly with other products that are in a similar category, as each artists work sparks different reactions from people. The main points we will explore in this analysis is the way that other artists or groups market and sell their products. Things like ease of use, site organization, and sales experience are what will be our main points of interest. Branding and voice are also main concerns. When talking with the owner of Alphanchanneling, we discussed a wide variety of concepts that could be explored, with an emphasis on framing of the products and the overall branding and storytelling. We hope to explore what others are doing to tell their stories and how we can more effectively translate the unique world that Alphachanneling has created.
Functionality Comparison
Results
There is a lot to consider regarding the redesign of Alphachanneling.com. There is no one direct competitor who is selling the exact same types of products, and art is very subjective. Our goal is to really pinpoint what works in other art sales sites and see what we are missing. There are great things to be learned from each site we looked at, but none of them transfer directly. Faile functions very differently from Alphachanneling, in that they are focused on exhibitions and installations over selling art prints or products. What faile.net excels at is clarity and navigation. The focus is on the art, and that is what you see. It works to really evoke further interest and exploration.
Exhibition A is a good example of how to use minimalism to highlight the work over anything else, but this also makes it lack storytelling or cohesion. The lack of shop navigation, and a general lack of organization leads to confusion. Our goal with this project is to create an organized shopping experience, and this is a good example of what can happen without proper nav. Their types of products and range from prints to original pieces does fit in with the types of products that Alphachanneling sells, and this is an interesting area to explore. Exhibit A does a good job of having a fairly wide price spread without sacrificing the fine art aspect of the products. This is the main problem I have with Killer Acid. Although they have a great shop that is very easy to use and geared towards sales, they don’t have a fine arts focus. Where Alphachanneling would like to explore low priced items more in terms of giving access to find art through lower priced items, the originals still need to hold power as fine art objects. A good comparison is something like Ferrari. Not everyone can afford a Ferrari, but fans of the brand can buy a Ferrari key chain or t shirt that shows their appreciation for the products. It shows that they have “good taste” even though they can’t afford the car themselves. SImilarly, with Alphachanneling, we want to present fine art pieces, but then offer a way into the world without having to rely on high end buyers only. The vast popularity of Alphachanneling on social media makes this a potentially viable path to go down.
Ideation
After processing the raw data from the interviews and secondary research, it’s time to take a look at which direction we will head in to solve these problems.
Persona
Goal Setting
Create an engaging world where users want to spend time
Make browsing through products more fulfilling
Show the art making process and build rapport with the artist
Make it easier to find what the user is looking for
Highlight products that are popular
Showcase sales and promotions
User Goals
Increase sales
Lower amount of abandoned carts
Boost user time spent on site
Build robust sales platform to make finding artwork easier
Promote items and sales promotions
Business Goals
Building the site
At this point, it is time to put all of these things into an organized and thoughtful design that will help to bring our idea to life. Focusing on one flow to start with, we can explore the possibilities of this type of experience.
Site Map
Going into the actual wire framing process, we can compare the existing site with the things we learned through the research. Building the overall site architecture will help us find what flows to focus on.
Lo fi wireframe sketches
Lo fi wireframes - digital
User Flow
Information Architecture
Based on our research findings, there are already organizational issues that need to be address. Simplifying the structure of the site allows the user to better navigate to find what they need. The shop section is our main focus.
Wireframing
For my wireframes, I began by focusing on the most important user flow, purchasing a print. This is the most common activity performed on the site. Over 90% of Alphachanneling’s traffic is on mobile, so it only makes sense to start there.
Focusing in on our main flow, shopping for a print, I digitized my wireframes within this framework.
Prototyping
At this point, I built an initial version of the flow in mid fidelity to do user testing.
User Testing
With my working prototype in hand, it was time to do some testing with real users.
Task:Find “Wild Roses” Print in the “Alchemy’ collection and add to cart
Success Measures: Completing task, no errors, ease of use, time taken.
Number of users: 5
Test Flow
Provide user with phone for testing
Explain to user background of Alphachanneling
Explaining the goal of the test: Finding a specific print and adding it to the cart
Instruct user to talk out loud through their experience and decision making process
Take notes of user physical behavior
Take notes of stumbling points or long waits to complete tasks.
Time overall start to finish length it takes user to complete task.
Have user debrief their experience.
Overall success rate: 5/5
Number of users: 5
Although all users were able to complete the task within a 2 minute time span, there were obvious areas of unnecessary stumbles
2/5 used the hamburger menu
The navigation menu is straightforward, but users were slightly confused by clicking shop vs the carrot. Clarify drop down in nav
3/5 used the “enter the shop” button
Once in the main shop page, 2 users had trouble understanding what to do next, took extra time to click the shop menu drop down. This is an unnecessary extra step that could be eliminated
Once on the product page, 2/5 users attempted to add to cart before selecting size. Add to cart button could be missing or greyed out before selecting options
Clarify collections vs sections
3 users suggested a pop out cart that shows that the item has been added instead of the extra step of having to click go to cart
Nav menu could follow more traditional design pattern
User Testing Takeaways
Recommendations
Now that we have tested the prototype, there were some issues that we can address.
Final Prototype
With our user testing insights laid out, changes were made according to what we learned. The nav was streamlined and users were forced to use it instead of the “Enter the shop” button on the homepage. In addition, we reworked the cart to be an overlay that automatically pops up when an item is added to the cart, making the process of checkout faster for those who want to just buy one thing.
Next Steps
Build out the rest of the site
Further user testing to assess possible blind spots
Explore further marketing and sales promotion potential
Build email marketing strategy and newsletter sign up
Pass on to development team
Launch site