Chairigami
Retail Site Redesign
Created a new mobile-friendly site for a cardboard furniture retailer
Deliverables
Technical site audit and strategic analysis
Website Redesign and development
Role
Designer and developer
Tools
Sketch
Illustrator
Wix
Time
3 months
The Client
Chairigami is a cardboard furniture retailer that creates sustainable pop-up spaces and trade show booths.
Why was a redesign needed?
Chairigami's site was outdated and not mobile-friendly. They needed to update to a new platform that would give the owner the ability to easily update content for both desktop and mobile viewing.
Since Chairigami's original site was created, their target customer evolved from college students and "the urban nomad" to companies looking for sustainable trade show booths. The new site needed to target a more corporate audience.
Constraints and Challenges
Sole Designer Working Part-Time
The client needed the new site to launch in time for the start of the next trade show season. This coincided with my timeline restrictions, as I would be starting a full time immersive design bootcamp at that time. With this hard deadline and some unknowns about the platform that would be used to ultimately build the new site, I had to budget my time carefully.
Drag and Drop CMS
It was very important to the client that they be able to edit the site content themselves going forward without needing to learn a complex system. Ultimately we decided to use Wix, which provided the most flexibility in design, but did not allow me to set theme rules directly in the CSS. Being strictly limited to the customization options available on the platform required creative design thinking to accomplish a design that fit the brand standards.
Site Audit
Before exploring design directions I audited the existing site to understand what was working and what wasn’t.
Traffic Patterns
Most website users find the site from:
-
Organic Search
-
Social media, primarily Pinterest
Most trafficked pages of the site are:
- Store
-
Home
-
Trade show
-
Standing desk
Most successful search terms are:
-
Cardboard furniture
-
Trade show furniture
-
Mobile users are less engaged than desktop users
Stakeholder Interviews
Pain Points
-
Frequently have to direct users to jump around on trade show page during pitch
-
Managing expectations around custom printing pricing/sustainability
-
Can be difficult to get case study images
-
Collecting/coordinating shipping details, custom pricing for each sale
-
Trade show and store pages not integrated
Selling Points
-
Reliable, individual customer service
-
Trade show experts, providing good service to help people customize their story
-
Easy assembly
-
Lightweight, individuals can manage furniture
-
Reusable/recyclable
-
Zach’s design experience for custom projects
“
We want users to feel like they are immersed in a cardboard world.”
- Zach Rothloz, Founder
User Interviews
Client Challenges and Needs
-
Doesn't want to have to think about the booth while at a trade show, instead focuses on the connections to be made
-
Needs to trust that booth will arrive on time and will be easy to assemble
-
When shopping for a booth, wants an at-a-glance understanding of how the booth with serve their needs
-
Looking for guidance and inspiration on designing a booth
Chairigami Strengths
-
Personal touch, confidence in knowing that they can reach someone on the phone to address any problems
-
Scrappy DIY feel of the Chairigami booth stands out among overly slick corporate booths
-
Taking down the booth is easy when tired at the end of the show
Come to check out the furniture, stay for the content.”
- Prahbas Pokharel, Reduct.Video
“
Takeaways
Chairigami clients are very receptive to suggestions, with visualization being a key influencer.
-
Guide users to desired products with careful image selection and placement. Ask clients for booth photographs in pre- and post- event conversations, look for opportunities to get case study pictures of each core booth collection.
Reorganize information to a more one directional flow
-
Users are jumping around the site and up and down pages for information, relying heavily on guidance to navigate to key selling points. Restructure so that information proceeds logically, may decrease sales service load for Kathy.
Shipping information transparency
-
Builds trust, increases speed/ease of access to key purchasing factor. Difficult to provide general information since each event can have many variables.
Increase awareness of easy assembly
-
Users are not finding this selling point independently, surprised by the simplicity and highlight as a favorite feature
Information Hierarchy
I revisited the site hierarchy to address the problem of users getting siloed into the individual product pages or the trade show pages. The goal of the new site map was to provide a more straightforward user flow for sales pitches.
The new site map establishes the furniture sets as separate booth products, making the offerings more straightforward for customers. Additionally, the new site map provides more interconnection between the case studies, booth products and store pages, so that users are encouraged to continue browsing the offerings.
Technology Recommendations
I explored several options for drag and drop editing platforms for the new site based on the customization needs of the client.
Platform
Wordpress
Direct Code Access
Complete Access
Drag and Drop Editing
Limited, depending on themes and plugins
Mobile Customization
Robust responsive theme options, additional plugins, large developer community
Cost
~$200/year+ depending on themes and plugins
I recommended developing the new site with Wix as the best balance between robust development tools and easy, intuitive editing for non-technical staff.
Squarespace
No Access
Available, but less freedom than Wix
Automated mobile optimization without custom controls
$312/year
Wix
Limited Access
Robust
Manual mobile customization through drag and drop editor
$276/year
Wireframing
I focused on collaborative tools and processes for the wireframing process to give the client a chance to refine the site content during the redesign process.
Workshop Templating
To talk through layout and content updates efficiently, I planned a full day workshop with the client where we would brainstorm and finalize the wireframe plans. To facilitate the workshop, I created blank templates based on the initial wireframe sketches that could be cut apart and drawn on.
Workshop Results
The workshop was an effective method for rapid iteration on content development and layout. The client and I earch left the workshop with clear next steps to move the project forward.
Beginning to Build
After the workshop I began building out the pages we had wireframed directly in Wix, rather than finalizing pixel perfect high fidelity designs in a tool like Sketch. Since I had not developed with Wix before, refining the design directly on the platform was an effective way to avoid running into limitations of the platform at a late stage of the project. Given our restricted timeline, it was essential to avoid that kind of last minute hiccup.
Design Explorations
Limitations of the platform required some trial and error and creative thinking to present a site that communicated the brand standards and felt intentional, not a work-around solution.
Homepage Slider Design
The homepage slider was an important design feature to get right, as the first thing a homepage visitor sees. With the photography available, it was difficult to find images that had visual space for overlay text.
The final solution uses a tangram-style frame for the slide image, inspired by the Chairigami logo. This option provides a strong design language for working with less than optimal images in the future.
Illustrations
Illustration has long been an element of the Chairigami brand. The hand-drawn doodle style is designed to reach out to the quirky DIY audience.
Results
Chairigami was very pleased to launch the new site in time for the fall trade show season. The site saw a nice bump in traffic following the launch.
We are seeing higher quality leads coming from the website traffic.”
- Zach Rotholz, Chairigami Founder
“
Next Steps
-
Assess customer response to the updated site design.
-
Track user traffic to asses changes in user behavior with the new design
-
Offer a survey soliciting feedback to site users. Offer a promotion for users who are also willing to participate in usability and desirability testing.
-
-
Expand the set of illustrations, giving Chairigami a standard illustration library to use for future promotion without the need for additional design projects.
Reflections
Given the time constraints and my need to get more familiar with the platform, the decision to move straight from wireframing to building the site design in Wix made sense. However, the design process could have been sped up if I had switched to Sketch once I had a better understanding of the limitations of the platform. Since the client was eager to participate in the design process, we could have more quickly iterated and come to a consensus on layouts in Sketch.
