Cufflink Monthly

Cufflink Monthly Website Redesign

Roles - Lead Visual Designer, UI Designer, Usability Tester

Timeline - 2 Weeks

TEAMMATES

Stephanie - Product Manager

Brittney - Research Lead

SUMMARY

My team was tasked with the redesign of Cufflink Monthly's website. Cufflink Monthly is a site where customers can purchase a monthly cufflink subscription or a single pair of cufflinks. The website needed to stand out in a sea of subscription services.

PROBLEM

Due to recent exposure in the media and to interesting social media campaigns, visitors were arriving to Cufflink Monthly's website, but not buying product. A closer look showed that Cufflink Monthly was suffering from a few different issues that ultimately led to that conversion problem. Those included:

1. brand consistency

2. search optimization

3. business strategy

To tackle these issues, we first needed a better understanding of cufflink users.

RESEARCH

We conducted a survey about cufflinks and subscription services, which had 69 responses. Here we learned that:

63% of participants do not wear cufflinks

but 61% of those participants also specified that they would wear cufflinks.

Additionally, we conducted a series of usability tests of the original website, to see how people felt about the site. Out of 20 responses, we found that:

54% of participants stated that they felt comfortable purchasing from the site

but 60% of participants stated that they would not purchase. 

And that a main reason participants did not wear cufflinks was because they did not own french-cuff shirts.

Knowing those bits of crucial information, we needed to figure out how to incorporate an addition of a french-cuff shirt to a subscription option, and how to best create a site that felt reliable to users.

SOLUTION

The solution proposed was a website redesign that would facilitate a simple, instinctive, and memorable experience.

• My role was to hone in on the brand and create the design of the website consistent.

• Brittney focused on researching Search Engine Optimization strategies and how Cufflink Monthly could better utilize those, as well as updating their social media presence to allure customers.

• Stephanie focused on the business intelligence aspect of the redesign, and how to use conversion-centered design to increase sales.

BRAND CONSISTENCY

Together with co-founder Karina, we did a brand affinity activity to see how she views the brand. We picked out a list of adjectives and placed them on a white board, she organized the words into what Cufflink Monthly was, and what they were not.

Karina next narrowed the list of words down to five, and we got to work creating two mood boards for her. She selected a combination of the two, and we were able to gather a sense of the mood she prefers for the website. 

I created this mood board illustrated her five words that described the brand:

1.  unique

2.  confident

3.  sincere

4.  imaginative

5.  leader

I was able to pull together a color pallet that was similar to the original, but with a little bit more character. A singular font, Libre Baskerville, was also selected because it:

1.  is a sophisticated and classic option fits in quite well with the brand

2.  is easy to read on-screen

Next, I got to work putting together some wireframes. There were a few things I knew I wanted to incorporate immediately. These included: 

1.  A header and footer for each page

2.  A new navigation bar that spread out below the logo

3. A large hero image on the homepage to showcase the cufflinks

4.  A description of how the subscription works on the homepage

CHALLENGE

We wanted to next focus on one of the features of the site that we thought would drive sales while also setting the company apart from competition. While we were doing market research we kept thinking, "how can we be innovative?" This absolutely stumped us.

Later, after some important feedback, we came to the conclusion that being innovative for innovation's sake was pointless. We were here to improve Cufflink Monthly's site, which would be innovative for the company.

What we did land on was a style "quiz" that would consist of a list of seven questions visitors would answer to first see which category their style fell under, which subscription we suggested they purchase, and if they wanted to purchase a single cufflink pair, which styles we suggest. Brittney next designed the page:  

From our market research, we found that filling out these types of questionnaires helped users feel like what they are receiving has a personal touch, and would covert a visitor into a customer. 

DESIGN

While designing each page, I wanted to keep the layout uniform. The header along with the white navigation bar, mimics a suit sleeve with the shirt slightly popping out, which was a fun detail I was able to add into the design every page.

Additionally, each page has a clean title with a small description clearly displayed with a line underneath. All of the call-to-action buttons are in the bright orange shade, to call attention to the users. I also included some phrases in many of the pages that emphasize some of the actual perks of purchasing from Cufflink Monthly. These were: "free shipping", "custom-design", "quality cufflinks".

I also included a footer that houses all of the links found at the top navigation bar, along with a few others that customers may be interested in viewing. The footer also included information about contacting Cufflink Monthly with inquiries. What Cufflink Month'y original homepage was missing was an area for social media links. In this updated footer, the links are clear at the bottom.

Finally, we included some photographs of a model wearing the cufflinks (the model is my teammate Brittney's boyfriend). Our biggest piece of advice to improve the website thought it was to use pictures of people wearing Cufflink Monthly's cufflinks.

PROTOTYPE

Take a look at the final product. To follow the tour of the clickable prototype click here. 

Or, watch the video below.

WHY THIS MATTERS

We added these features and visual elements to improve the overall look of the site, and to also make it look like a reliable and legitimate site, which will increase sales.

Cufflink Monthly sent our team three pairs of cufflinks so that we were able to first-hand see the product and experience how the customer feels when receiving a package. The three of us were pleasantly surprised by the wonderful quality of the product. With a product, and a pair of co-founders as fantastic as these, there should be a beautiful website to match.