Paola
Paola
Paola
Scroll down to see my work!
Overview:
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Basalt is a swimwear brand that began as an Instagram store with the vision of becoming an online store.
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My Role:
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Throughout this project, I developed the brand, followed by the textile design patterns and concluded with the web UX and UI design.
Brand Strategy.
Kickoff
Understanding the problem:
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The startup required a comprehensive design solution, encompassing branding, product design, and a user-friendly online store. The challenge was to align the design with an already established consumer profile, ensuring a cohesive and tailored user experience across all touchpoints.
Brand
attributes and mission statement
Goal and Strategy:
The goal was to gather insights from a potential market sample to inform the development of branding, product offerings, and website design while enabling objective discussions around the findings.
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Ideation Process:
Through brainstorming sessions, we prioritized brand attributes and crafted a mission statement. Key questions guided the process:
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How would our community perceive and describe us?
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How do we define our target audience?
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What tone and voice do we want to convey?
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What emotional impact do we aim to leave on users?
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What tangible value do we provide to our audience?
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How do we differentiate ourselves from competitors?
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To better understand the diverse user base, we created proto-personas grounded in experience and informed assumptions. These served as an initial framework for identifying user needs, pain points, and challenges. This approach provided valuable insights that guided the ideation of potential solutions, forming a strong foundation for the development of the final products.
Definition of Target Groups
Finding a Style
​Following the initial workshop, I translated the mission and brand attributes into 10 distinct branding concepts and a variety of textile patterns. During the second workshop, the 8th concept was chosen for its minimalist black-and-white style, which effectively highlighted the brand’s core attributes and resonated with the target consumer’s aesthetic.
Building the Site,
The Process
During the discovery phase, we spoke with our user demographic to understand their pain points, their needs and goals, and their experience while online shopping.
We synthesized the compiled research to identify patterns and innovation opportunities based on the data we gathered during discovery.
For the ideation stage I sketched out wireframes, designed structure, and designed service blueprints before moving on to rough drafts of low-fidelity mock-ups.
After defining the design direction, I started the design phase. I created high-fidelity mock-ups by defining a visual language and graphic design while conducting usability testing.
Finally, for the implementation phase, I handed off our designs to development team for final testing.
Outcomes
​Final Design Outcome:
Our final design embodies the insights gained during the discovery and synthesis phases. Users expressed a strong preference for a simplified, clean interface, and our solution directly addresses that need. By eliminating unnecessary visuals, features, and UI transitions, we streamlined the user experience, resulting in improved usability and a notable increase in purchase rates.
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Learnings and Next Steps:
Through this process, we learned the importance of continuous user feedback and iterative testing to identify and address pain points effectively. Simplifying the interface not only improved the overall experience but also reinforced the value of prioritizing user needs over aesthetic complexity. Moving forward, we plan to conduct A/B testing to further optimize key features, explore additional user engagement strategies, and monitor analytics to ensure long-term performance and scalability.