Sculpting an Engaging E-Commerce Journey: CHUME Case Study

As part of Ironhack’s UX/UI Design course, my team and I undertook the challenge of designing an e-commerce website for a local business or professional. Our objective was to ensure that the information is presented in a user-friendly manner, catering to the needs of both the customers and the providers. The project demanded our attention towards creating a clear and organized platform that offers seamless navigation and encourages user engagement.

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Introducing CHUME: Our E-commerce Client

We had the opportunity to collaborate with CHUME, a unique handmade ceramics brand owned by Courtney Hume. The brand’s style is a fusion of gothic and feminist themes, showcasing hand-painted drawings of various beings and sculptures of vulvas. At the start of the project, CHUME’s sales were limited to Etsy and Instagram. We arranged a meeting with Courtney to discuss her vision for the brand and to understand what her requirements were for an e-commerce website. Here are some highlights from our conversation with her.

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What are your inspirations?

Courtney: ‘I’ve always loved creepy and dark art that is also a bit obscure and gross. And from a feminist perspective, I ask myself why people get so grossed out when they see a vulva.’

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What are your future plans with the brand?

Courtney: ‘This summer, I want to do more markets and maybe an exhibition at my studio. In terms of growth, I’m pretty content with the way it is now. I don’t have a need to grow into a big brand just yet.’

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What are your best-selling products?

Courtney: ‘The vulva pieces and the handpainted mugs have been selling well. I have also noticed that practical pieces like mugs sell better than sculptures.’

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Who would you like your brand to reach?

Courtney: ‘I would like to reach more people in the scene that I am in, e.g. the punk, goth or rock scene.’

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Understanding Our Target Audience

As is customary in our design process, we conducted user research as the first step in building a foundation for our website. To gather insights, we utilized a public survey and also interviewed a buyer of CHUME’s ceramics. Our survey began with demographic questions, with the majority of respondents falling between 18 to 45 years of age (84.2%) and identifying as female (63.2%). We then asked about participants’ interests in pottery and their preference for practical versus decorative pieces, with most expressing an interest in pottery (84.2%) and a preference for practical items (43.8% practical, 43.8% both). This data gave us insight into which products we should prioritize on the website.

We also had the opportunity to interview Claire, a buyer of CHUME’s ceramics. Through our conversation with her, we learned that she appreciates the gothic yet minimalistic style of CHUME’s products and prefers practical items over purely decorative ones.

Drawing from the information we gathered from the survey and interview, we created a user persona named Barbara Schultze, a 33-year-old German living in Berlin.

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We developed a storyboard that depicts Barbara’s experience interacting with CHUME’s e-commerce website. The story begins with Barbara discovering CHUME’s stand at a flea market and feeling drawn to their unique products. However, she’s unable to decide which item to purchase on the spot, so she takes a business card from the stand, which includes the URL of CHUME’s webshop. Later, in the comfort of her home, she visits the website and easily navigates through the available items until she finds one that captures her interest. Barbara then proceeds to purchase the item in just a few simple steps.

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From Problem to Hypothesis

In order to address the challenges faced by CHUME, our team identified the need for a clear and secure way for prospective buyers to purchase the brand’s handmade ceramics. At present, customers can only make purchases through CHUME’s social media accounts, which can be inconvenient and may result in missed sales opportunities.

To overcome this issue, we proposed the development of an e-commerce website that would offer a visually appealing display of CHUME’s products along with a streamlined ordering system. Our ultimate goal is to increase sales and establish the e-commerce platform as the primary source of revenue for CHUME. We will measure the success of our solution by tracking the growth in sales on the e-commerce website relative to CHUME’s existing Etsy and Instagram accounts.

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Development of the E-commerce Website

During the initial stages of website development, we focused on sketching user flow ideas. By studying the user flow of other e-commerce websites with similar themes, we identified ways to categorize CHUME’s products. We aimed for simplicity, avoiding the creation of subcategories. The result is a straightforward sitemap that allows for easy navigation. Please refer to the image below for a visual representation of our sitemap.

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After gathering information from our meeting with Courtney and the survey and interview with Claire, we developed the concept for the website. Our goal was to showcase CHUME’s unique and visually striking ceramics on the front page, acting as a portfolio that would then lead users to her webshop. With this in mind, we began to create a high-fidelity prototype of the website.

Below, you can see our prototype in action.

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By clicking here, you can also interact with our prototype in Figma.