SD Custom Footwear
Case Study
My Role:
- Strategy
- Information Architecture
- User Experience
- Wordpress
- UI Design
- E-Commerce
- Branding
The Challenge:
SD Custom Footwear is a San Diego Ca. based company that crafts custom footwear using traditional shoe making techniques and thrives making every luxury custom shoe one of a kind. SDCF(SD Custom Footwear) was landing project after project without a website, nor a brand identity. He was only using social media and word of mouth as his primary vehicle for marketing. The only problem was the owner needed to streamline his custom orders and the order processing.
The Goal:
The owners goal was scaling his business and he needed a professional brand identity and a website. This is what separates mediocre brands from the top-notch ones in the luxury shoe market. This is when he reached out to me for a professional brand identity and a custom responsive website user experience. This would allow him to focus on the work and not juggling order forms and tracking deposits.
My Process: 🕵🏻
As with all projects I always use the same framework to understand what I’m building. My design process starts off with the “Five Ws and How”(5W1H). Why am I building this? Who am I building it for? When and where will it be used? What am I building? How could I measure it? Understanding business goals and budget limitations helped me to strategize the best solutions while doing discovery and research.
USER PERSONAS, EMPATHY MAPS & USER FLOWS: 👨🏻🔬
Meet Josh:
Josh was on his Instagram account and was using the discover feature to find someone who customizes shoes, which is when he finds SDCF’s post. He decides to click around different IG post and decides to click to the website. He browses around the website and finds that the shoe work showcased is exactly what he's looking for so decides to request a quote and drops a deposit.
Meet Kelly:
Kelly was talking with a friend she modeled with about how hard it is to find retro shoes that fit her small feet. That’s when her friend gave her SDCF’s information and website. Kelly decides to go directly to the website and finds the website being informative and very user friendly, so she decides to request a custom quote and makes a deposit to get her pair of custom shoes started.
Competitor Analysis & Lo-Fi Wireframes: 👨🏻🎨
I dove into researching online competitors to locate any gaps and find what was working for them and how I could improve upon that. I like to see if the competition has a similar product or feature – If not, my solution could be a differentiator and help the business to enter or create a new market. After all discovery and research I began to define the design asthetic with sketches. For this scenario I went with a detailed lo-fi wireframe to get approval by the owner to give him a visual close to actual designs.
The Solution: ✍🏻
After receiving approval from the owner I began to create a luxury brand look and feel, with a clean legible logo and website. This would appeal to the users and match their style preference. All the preliminary work in the discovery and define stages allowed me to get straight to work and know where to go with the look and feel of the final design solution.
The Outcome: 🥳
In conclusion, the responsive mobile first website was exactly what the company needed. After monitoring the website KPIs for organic traffic, direct traffic, engagement, and conversions. The owner saw a 325% increase in revenue and is now considering to make the website also carry merchandise and offer classes by adding a booking feature.
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