VESSEL
Digitizing an Immersive Shopping Experience
Duration: 3 Weeks
Deliverables: Hi-Fi Prototype Desktop & Mobile, Design System
My Role: UX Research & Design
Tools: 
BRINGING THE BOUTIQUE TO YOU
Vessel has brought life to its quiet Jefferson Park neighborhood in Denver. Here you’ll find the owner, Nan, hard at work 6 days a week tending to her curated collection of plants, decor, and handcrafted goods. Despite its popularity, Vessel is in a neighborhood without a ton of foot traffic so sometimes the flow of customers is inconsistent. The store would benefit from additional revenue channels and digital exposure while maintaining low operational costs.
Through a process of exploring customer needs and business values an inspiring, aesthetically pleasing, and informative online presence was crafted for Vessel.
GAINING DIGITAL EXPOSURE & MAINTAINING BRAND AWARENESS
From the moment you step foot in Vessel, it feels like home and you can sense the passion and care that Nan has put into each plant and item she sells. The reviews are a reflection of the overwhelmingly positive experience that customers have when shopping there.
I knew is was critical that the same atmosphere, energy, and care that keeps clients coming back to Vessel, was also reflected in Vessel’s online presence. Replicating something so authentic and personal in a digital environment can be challenging, which is why the first step in my process was understanding what clients valued the most.
THE NEED FOR DIGITAL
Before designing a digital counterpart for Vessel, it was essential to explore user needs and goals. First, I surveyed 9 individuals to explore our shopper’s general behaviors and willingness to shop online. It was evident that plant and home decor shoppers were seeking opportunities to shop online for these items. This validated that an e-commerce presence would be viable.
UNDERSTANDING USER GOALS & VALUES
Given the need for an e-commerce platform, additional user interviews were conducted and ultimately uncovered the key insights that helped identify the components of the home decor shopping experience that Nan’s clients would benefit from on an online platform. After mapping out user feedback and sorting into common themes, the following key takeaways were drawn about our users.
Based on these takeaways, I did an initial brainstorm of potential features that would help to address our user priorities. Since there were a lot of different components that could be built out, I would come back to this list to decide which components were most important after making personas that were more focused.
PERSONAS
With these user insights in mind, it was possible to start pinpointing Vessel’s target user so that a solution could be designed for their needs specifically. I synthesized the above takeaways to formulate 2 personas that represented typical Vessel shoppers.
PETER
Peter loves to shop for home decor that matches the aesthetic of the rest of his home. He is always aiming to perfect his personal style. He is big on using plants to accent this style as well, but he wants to make sure he is buying the ones that will thrive in his home specifically.
“I love shopping at boutiques, but I get frustrated when I have an idea of exactly what I want and then they end up having low inventory or items that don’t match my style.”
Peter needs an online solution that will allow him to search for and buy plants that fit with his current aesthetic. He finds when he goes to boutiques they can be hit or miss depending on their inventory.
Melissa is in the stage of her life where she is always looking for gifts for friends that are buying new houses, getting married, or having babies. She loves interior design and finding gifts that functional and beautiful in the home.
“I prefer to buy stylish, unique, and functional gifts for my friends, but sometimes it is overwhelming to go to a boutique and have so many options. It’s sensory overload!”
Melissa needs a quick and easy way to search online for gifts that match her friends’ various needs. She finds that when she goes into a store, she is indecisive and has trouble picturing what her friends will appreciate.
MELISSA
MAPPING OUT A FEASIBLE & EFFECTIVE SOLUTION
These 2 personas brought to life specific problems that tangible solutions could be designed to solve.
Before jumping to solve these user problems, I circled back to the initial overarching goal that was set for the project. While designing functional solutions for Peter and Melissa, it was critical to maintain the Vessel experience that was so important to shoppers in the first place.
The following question guided the ideation process to ensure this priority was kept top of mind.
How might we create an online experience that offers convenience and functionality while preserving the supportive, pleasant, and personalized dynamic shoppers appreciate when they visit Vessel in person?
Using the brainstormed list of features to answer the above question, functionality was addressed first. Our most significant user priorities were represented in our personas and in order to deliver solutions that were tailored to our user personas. To account for these priorities, the features highlighted in green would need to be included in the website design.
Since these 4 priorities were the most important features to Vessel users, they were used when mapping out the site structure and user flows. Components like Vessels Classes & Workshops and Nan’s Plant tips help to preserve the personalized feel that Vessel customers are so appreciative of while options like “Shop the Look” give clients the feeling of being surrounded by and shopping for a specific welcoming aesthetic just like they would in store.
The sitemap below displays where on the site these features would be accounted for. The paths that would be demonstrated for our two user personas are also highlighted below. The following user flows capture functionality of 3 of the top 4 features.
BRINGING THESE PLANS TO LIFE
In order to visualize the look and feel of the site, several sketches were drawn to try different layouts, from there, the screens that had the most functional and simple look and feel were selected to act as a blueprint for mid-fidelity wireframes.
These sketches gave us an idea of content strategy and structure, but didn’t give us as much clarity on the actual feel of the site. The next step was visualizing this content digitally to get a better feel for the functionality and feel of the site content. Mid-fidelity wireframes were crafted in order to achieve this.
The functionality of the new design was tested with multiple users to see if it achieved the needs of Peter and Melissa. Throughout tests, users were also asked about the overall experience and emotions they felt when navigating the website.
