Challenge Summary
The goal of this contest is to design an engaging, transactional, and professional looking e-commerce site to sell framed office artwork. The new site design should be fresh, clean and very usable. Changing the existing design elements, colors, and fonts is perfectly fine. Good luck!
Primary Goals The goal of this contest is to redesign our e-commerce website. We are looking for an entirely new look, and there are very few design restrictions. The primary navigation, left-hand navigation, banners, and main content areas should all be part of the redesign. All design elements should be simple and usable so that shopping and navigation is easy. We are looking for a visually stimulating design that is not overwhelming, so shoppers feel comfortable and confident using our site. Target Audience Our target audience is looking for framed art for their business or office. They are looking for a site that looks professional, reputable, and service driven so they feel confident they are making business appropriate purchases. They want an easy shopping experience that leaves no room for confusion. There are two segments of users that are part of this audience. The first user wants to shop our collection themselves without any guidance. The second user needs help to make their purchase and is looking for consultation. Design Considerations The process of buying framed artwork at our website should be clear and self explanatory. First you find a category you are interested in, then you select a product. Once at the product detail page, all users needs to do is select a frame and add the product to the cart. The design of the site should also be good at directing our second user group that is more interested in consultation and a guided shopping experience. The design should direct these users to contact our company by using the phone or inquiry form. Use our existing site to determine the information that will need to be included in the design, but all pages should be redesigned and evaluated for intuitive layout while keeping the target audience in mind. Buttons and product information should be clear and easy to find. Please feel free to add new visual elements and icons as you think looks best. If you have a better idea for our logo, go for it. The designer has total freedom to use their judgement about what will look good and work well. A few sites that have designs we like: www.hulu.com (The top navigation is clean and organized and looks polished and doesn't look flat.) www.crutchfield.com (The page header and navigation structure (not the colors), and we love how the phone number demands attention. We also like the search bar on the right.) www.bluefly.com (Product details are grouped together and the add to cart button is in the middle of the page and easy to find. The suggested products appear on the right of the page, vertically, rather than at the bottom of the page horizontally.) Design to Sell (The concepts in this article are great.) The site design should also consider: -Showing an intuitive interface (usability) -Conceptualizing the information (layout) -Creating a clean & appropriate design (creativity and design) -Improving on the flow of information Images Any images found on the our website may be used in your designs. Also read the stock photography policy below: Stock Photography Watermarked comp photography from istockphoto.com is allowed in this contest. You must follow these instructions or your submission will fail screening: 1) You must include a completed Third Party Content worksheet. It belongs in your Submission folder/zip file -- NOT your Source folder/zip file. 2) Be sure to keep the watermark intact. If the image is cropped in such a way that the watermark is not visible, please be sure to include the entire image in your source files so we can see that it is a comp image from iStockphoto.com. Required Pages Homepage- The homepage should showcase products and/or categories and engage and direct users to shop for art. It should also provide users a path to the Consultation/Inquiry Page by using a banner somewhere on the homepage. There should also be a link to the Consultation/Inquiry Page built into our site navigation. We would like this link to be distinguised from the primary category navigation. Primary Category- This page needs to direct users into a secondary category page. It should use images and text to help users easily find a category they are interested in. Images from secondary categories can be used on this page if desired. Adding a larger image (think landing page) at the top of the page might help users realize how nice an office can look with art. Secondary Category- The secondary category page shows all of the products in a category. There should be a piece title, frame name, dimensions, price, add to cart, and frame options button for each piece. The frame options button is actually a link to the product page. If you think that different text or icons would help to make this clear, please include your ideas in the design. Product Detail Page- The goal of the product detail page is to show the user a piece of artwork, allow them to select frames to see which they like best with the artwork, then add the finished piece to the cart. We want this page to be very clean and easy to use so the user doesn't need to think about what they have to do. The frame options should be laid out so that they all appear on the page and no scrolling is required. It should be obvious to the user that the frame options are clickable and that they will change the frame on the artwork. If you can come up with another way (instead of corner samples) to display the frame options that looks better and that takes up less space on the page, fantastic. Also, for each piece of artwork, there is a recommended frame option. This recommended text or icon needs to be included in the design. We would like the artwork, frame options, product details, quantity and add to cart buttons to all fit in the main viewing area without scrolling. We are curious how the "May we also recommend" products would look appear on the right side of the screen vertically, similar to Bluefly. Shopping Cart- Before viewing the shopping cart page, add a product to your cart. Redesigning the shopping cart page should be very easy. All of the elements that should be included are already found in the shopping cart pages. The checkout process should be clear and easy and all information should be logically presented. Consultation/Inquiry Page - This page does not yet exist on our site. The consultation inquiry form will be used to capture information from users that have large projects or need art consultation. The page should not just include form fields. It should include a header banner at the top that will make users feel confident that we deal with large projects on a regular basis. Below the banner there could be one large image or a few images to drive home that we handle large products and accounts, and to inspire users and show them how art can improve their environment. Below the image(s) we would like another banner that would have bullet points highlighting the different types of consultation and services we offer. Below all of that information will be our form fields and a submit button. Those are the main elements we would like on the page. Feel free to arrange them the way you think works best, not just the way we listed them. We would like to capture user first and last names, email address, an optional phone number field, an "Industry Type" drop down box, and a questions/comments textbox. At the bottom of the page can be our contact information, in case a user doesn't want to fill out the form and would rather call or email us.
Primary Goals The goal of this contest is to redesign our e-commerce website. We are looking for an entirely new look, and there are very few design restrictions. The primary navigation, left-hand navigation, banners, and main content areas should all be part of the redesign. All design elements should be simple and usable so that shopping and navigation is easy. We are looking for a visually stimulating design that is not overwhelming, so shoppers feel comfortable and confident using our site. Target Audience Our target audience is looking for framed art for their business or office. They are looking for a site that looks professional, reputable, and service driven so they feel confident they are making business appropriate purchases. They want an easy shopping experience that leaves no room for confusion. There are two segments of users that are part of this audience. The first user wants to shop our collection themselves without any guidance. The second user needs help to make their purchase and is looking for consultation. Design Considerations The process of buying framed artwork at our website should be clear and self explanatory. First you find a category you are interested in, then you select a product. Once at the product detail page, all users needs to do is select a frame and add the product to the cart. The design of the site should also be good at directing our second user group that is more interested in consultation and a guided shopping experience. The design should direct these users to contact our company by using the phone or inquiry form. Use our existing site to determine the information that will need to be included in the design, but all pages should be redesigned and evaluated for intuitive layout while keeping the target audience in mind. Buttons and product information should be clear and easy to find. Please feel free to add new visual elements and icons as you think looks best. If you have a better idea for our logo, go for it. The designer has total freedom to use their judgement about what will look good and work well. A few sites that have designs we like: www.hulu.com (The top navigation is clean and organized and looks polished and doesn't look flat.) www.crutchfield.com (The page header and navigation structure (not the colors), and we love how the phone number demands attention. We also like the search bar on the right.) www.bluefly.com (Product details are grouped together and the add to cart button is in the middle of the page and easy to find. The suggested products appear on the right of the page, vertically, rather than at the bottom of the page horizontally.) Design to Sell (The concepts in this article are great.) The site design should also consider: -Showing an intuitive interface (usability) -Conceptualizing the information (layout) -Creating a clean & appropriate design (creativity and design) -Improving on the flow of information Images Any images found on the our website may be used in your designs. Also read the stock photography policy below: Stock Photography Watermarked comp photography from istockphoto.com is allowed in this contest. You must follow these instructions or your submission will fail screening: 1) You must include a completed Third Party Content worksheet. It belongs in your Submission folder/zip file -- NOT your Source folder/zip file. 2) Be sure to keep the watermark intact. If the image is cropped in such a way that the watermark is not visible, please be sure to include the entire image in your source files so we can see that it is a comp image from iStockphoto.com. Required Pages Homepage- The homepage should showcase products and/or categories and engage and direct users to shop for art. It should also provide users a path to the Consultation/Inquiry Page by using a banner somewhere on the homepage. There should also be a link to the Consultation/Inquiry Page built into our site navigation. We would like this link to be distinguised from the primary category navigation. Primary Category- This page needs to direct users into a secondary category page. It should use images and text to help users easily find a category they are interested in. Images from secondary categories can be used on this page if desired. Adding a larger image (think landing page) at the top of the page might help users realize how nice an office can look with art. Secondary Category- The secondary category page shows all of the products in a category. There should be a piece title, frame name, dimensions, price, add to cart, and frame options button for each piece. The frame options button is actually a link to the product page. If you think that different text or icons would help to make this clear, please include your ideas in the design. Product Detail Page- The goal of the product detail page is to show the user a piece of artwork, allow them to select frames to see which they like best with the artwork, then add the finished piece to the cart. We want this page to be very clean and easy to use so the user doesn't need to think about what they have to do. The frame options should be laid out so that they all appear on the page and no scrolling is required. It should be obvious to the user that the frame options are clickable and that they will change the frame on the artwork. If you can come up with another way (instead of corner samples) to display the frame options that looks better and that takes up less space on the page, fantastic. Also, for each piece of artwork, there is a recommended frame option. This recommended text or icon needs to be included in the design. We would like the artwork, frame options, product details, quantity and add to cart buttons to all fit in the main viewing area without scrolling. We are curious how the "May we also recommend" products would look appear on the right side of the screen vertically, similar to Bluefly. Shopping Cart- Before viewing the shopping cart page, add a product to your cart. Redesigning the shopping cart page should be very easy. All of the elements that should be included are already found in the shopping cart pages. The checkout process should be clear and easy and all information should be logically presented. Consultation/Inquiry Page - This page does not yet exist on our site. The consultation inquiry form will be used to capture information from users that have large projects or need art consultation. The page should not just include form fields. It should include a header banner at the top that will make users feel confident that we deal with large projects on a regular basis. Below the banner there could be one large image or a few images to drive home that we handle large products and accounts, and to inspire users and show them how art can improve their environment. Below the image(s) we would like another banner that would have bullet points highlighting the different types of consultation and services we offer. Below all of that information will be our form fields and a submit button. Those are the main elements we would like on the page. Feel free to arrange them the way you think works best, not just the way we listed them. We would like to capture user first and last names, email address, an optional phone number field, an "Industry Type" drop down box, and a questions/comments textbox. At the bottom of the page can be our contact information, in case a user doesn't want to fill out the form and would rather call or email us.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.