Beast Quality Stamps
Beast Quality Stamps e-Commerce Site
Research & Discovery | Synthesis & Defining | Interaction Design | Testing | Visual Design | Next Steps
Overview
I had previously owned and operated my own rubber stamp business, selling customized rubber stamps on Etsy, an online marketplace, and also local markets and pop-ups. Looking to update the branding and also attract a larger customer base, I decided to conduct a case study for the business, with the intention of exploring web solutions for an e-commerce site that would attract customers and delight its users.
Design Goals
• Identify potential solutions that can be implemented to enrich the online shopping experience for rubber stampers.
• Establish a brand identity that speaks to stampers and attracts new customers.
• Increase eCommerce revenue by adding additional products and/or purchasing options
• Ensure web experience is responsive across platforms (in its design and its functionality)
Project Details
Challenge | Discover the users of rubber stamp products, and what their experiences and pain points are, in order to build the best possible rubber stamp shopping experience online.
Client | Beast Quality Stamps
Role | Lead Designer: Design Researcher, IxDesigner, Visual Designer
Duration | 2 weeks
What is Beast Quality Stamps?
Beast Quality Stamps started in a studio in Brooklyn NY, selling rubber stamps on Etsy’s marketplace as well as local craft markets. Instead of creating stamp designs with mass appeal, BQ approaches stamp design with a mindset of an artist with appreciation for the graphic image and its craft.
Since launching, the market response has been very positive, with a modest following for its unique stamp designs. Besides selling stock inventory, BQ also offers a customized rubber stamp service.
Now, the company is interested in venturing into the e-commerce market with their own website, which requires a case study of the rubber stamp market, and building a responsive e-commerce website that would attract customers and delight its users.
The Context & Problem
The market for rubber stamps is very niche, and due to the physical and creative nature of the product, hard to determine who are the shoppers and what they use it for. The main problem to tackle is to explore who the user base and what are their motivations for purchases, before we can design an e-commerce website for stamps.
Research and Discovery
Getting to know the problem
Rubber stamps are an old analog medium and it was hard to determine who are currently still use rubber stamps. Best way to find out was to visit a few local rubber stamp stores and conduct some contextual inquiries to gain some insight. Beast Quality Stamps also has a e-mailing list of past customers who can provide some insight into their shopping habits and motivations.
Goals
• Conduct a discovery phase to find out who still shops for rubber stamps, and what their goals and motivations are when shopping.
• To determine how we can design an e-commerce website for this niche market, and what are the design feature requirements to meet the user needs.
• To create a brand identity for Beast Quality that focuses on the company's strengths and for it to distinguish itself from its competitors.
Process
Through a mix of research techniques and guided by customer provisional personas, I plunged in, conducting competitive analysis to learn about existing e-commerce platforms for rubber stamps, building a contextual survey to learn from previous Beast Quality customers and spending an entire day at different rubber stamps stores interviewing business owners and customers alike.
Key Insights
From a few days of research, I was able to learn a great deal about the current market for rubber stamps. Rubber stamps are in a niche market, and shoppers tend to buy rubber stamps on impulse or with specific craft ideas in mind. Even though users do occasionally shop online for rubber stamps, they prefer local stores because of the curated selections of designs, the ability to see and feel the stamp designs in person, and also for the community of crafters. Observations gathered from my survey and interviews does show that rubber stamp users would shop online for the convenience and affordability, and Beast Quality Stamps can create a successful e-commerce website for rubber stamps if we can provide an online experience similar to the local store experience. Another insight I found was that there's a growing trend of handle-less rubber stamp dies, which can be attached & removed to a single universal handle. The main motivation of this trend is to save storage space for an always growing collection.
Synthesis & Defining the Problem
Through my research, I synthesized my findings using an empathy map and created a primary persona. With these documents I was able to pinpoint the goals and needs for a rubber stamp user and set that as a guiding persona when designing the e-commerce website.
Reframing the Problem
Taking each of the persona's goals and needs, I posed each need as a 'How might we..' question, which allows me to break down the problem space and ideate solutions for each need.
Brainstorming
Using the How Might Questions as a jump off point, I brainstormed various solutions for each problem space, and prioritized the solutions based on alignment with the business goal of building an e-commerce website for Beast Quality Stamps. Based on the solution provided, I decided that designing an effective UI that meets the user goal of shopping online easily and confidently should be first priority.
Solving the Problem
Understanding that the website's user interface, via creating a site map and a user flow chart, is key to defining the solution.
Sitemapping
I designed a structure for the website by creating a sitemap diagram, which will provide an overview of how the pages are linked when building the site. The sitemap will be useful in determining the visual hierarchy for accessing each page.
User Flow
Once the structure of the site is defined with a sitemap, I charted how users would land onto and navigate the site. This helps determine what the user interface requirements are, in order for the user to be successful in their task: finding and purchasing a rubber stamp.
Interaction Design: Paper to Prototype
I selected key screens integral to the user’s task of finding a specific stamp design, review the product details and making a purchase: The homepage, filtered product page, the cart and the checkout process.
Design Validation: Usability Testing
Test Goals
Once a working prototype was built using Marvel app, I took my prototype out for some testing with the following test goals:
1. To find any pain points or friction that the user might have while navigating the website.
2. How users will use the filter and/or sort by features to find the specified rubber stamp design, a jack-o-lantern.
I found four participants to test the prototypes, where I observed their interaction, while also recording both screen and audio for further notetaking.
Results
I analyzed the test findings by taking notes on the successes of the user tasks, user navigation patterns and behaviors, and also any feedback provided by the test participants. This allowed me to gain some insight into what steps to take next to improve the user experience.
Visual Design
How can we take Beast Quality Stamp's existing catalogue of designs and build an online experience that can effectively showcase their graphically diverse set of products?
A moodboard (consisting of UI designs of other websites, Beast Quality's existing designs, and stationery supplies) is used as a jumping-off point for Beast Quality's. UI design.
Logo
With Beast Quality adjectives of bold, trustworthy and fun, I sketched out different combinations of typography to created a logo that is inline with the brand adjectives. The logo is also based on the silhouette of a rubber stamp, consisting of three layers of material: Wood, foam and rubber.
Style Tile
A Style Tile document lists the core stylistic guidelines for the website's UI design. This will help with applying color, typography and layout for the high fidelity wireframes.
Finalized High Fidelity Frames
Due to the nature of Beast Quality products being predominantly graphic images, I think that by minimizing UI elements and use only fonts for buttons would provide a better user experience.
Design Takeaways
Based on initial feedback and findings, creating a streamlined shopping experience is a key metric of the website's success. Users are comfortable with browsing the designs, without feeling overwhelmed by the inventory. Once the site is developed and updated with better product photography, the user can definitely shop much more confidently.
Next Steps & Consideration
Since great design means never really being finished, it was important for me to wrap up the case study with some actionable next steps.
Product line audit and information architecture
Now that we have a baseline structure for the website, I think its important to go over Beast Quality Stamp's catalogue and compile a solution of how to sort and organize the various stamp designs. The gather the appropriate data, this will require an inventory audit and a card sort test.
Connect and build a community
Being such a niche market, rubber stamp users does have a dedicated user base. If we can create a social aspect to the business brand, such as providing tutorials, workshops or interesting crafting content, this will build a brand awareness and a following for Beast Quality.
Innovate the rubber stamp
Based on this current case study's research, there's a growing trend of abandoning stamp handles for a universal stamp handle such as the MISTI (Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented) among rubber stamp collectors. This switch allows users to save storage space within their stamp collections. In order for Beast Quality Stamps to meet this growing need among users, the product will need to adapt accordingly.
