VANILIA

Transforming the Vanilia E-Shop

My role

Redesign, Information Architecture, Prototyping, Interaction Design.

Defining product design concepts, information architecture, and creating wireframes. Making decisions around content, design and product strategy informed by metrics and research.

Timeline & Status

2 weeks, handed off for implementation

Overview

This project is a redesign of e-shop. Vanilia was born out of the addiction to discover, to find and to fall in love. Falling in love with the softest fabrics and tiniest details.

From design to styling, fitting and testing of clothing - at Vanilia we do this with passion for craftsmanship. “It only takes one-fifth of a second to fall in love. And when you do, you know.”

HIGHLIGHTS

Redesigning the E-Shop Experience: Crafting a Seamless Journey to Fall in Love with Vanilia's Timeless Craftsmanship.
0.1
Hero
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0.2
HomePage
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0.3
Catalog Page.
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0.4
Responsive mobile filters
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0.5
Product Page
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0.6
Responsive Product Page
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0.7
Responsive Product Page
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0.8
Popups Catalog
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0.9
VANILIA
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1.0
Responsive Tablet
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1.1
Inclusion
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1.2
Inner Page
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1.3
THANK U!
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Context

An opportunity to go out with a bang.

The message was loud and clear

Release creation and royalties split was the biggest request from the community. Above all else, it was the right thing to do, and an opportunity to overdeliver.

1
Community requests.
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The Problem

This wasn't going to be your typical platform update for Beatclap.

A pile-up of constraints.

Tight deadline, because we had to launch
before the sunset date.

Access nuances for Beatclap: users had to navigate a rarely-used "advanced settings" mode to complete the update.

Features Overload. Implementing a prioritisation Matrix.

Cross functional teams. Misalignment with the backend team slow down processes.

THE CHALLENGE

Take an otherwise highly unorthodox update process and package it into a website to be as intuitive, error-free, and desirable as possible.

North Star design principles:

Concise Clarity

Clear, informative, and straight-forward instructions.

Proactive Feedback

Anticipate and communicate progress and errors.

Product Excellence

Overdeliver with design.

2
Project process within timeline.
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HIGH-LEVEL AUDIT

Starting from what we already had.

Beatclap, but through a more critical lens

The Beatclap team provided me with a list of mandatory update instructions which included access to the existing Web App and a list of major competitors (Figure 3.0).

3.0
Audit exhibit A.
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Law of common region & proximity.

Missing Visual Hierarchy for CTA Discovery

Inefficient Information Architecture and Page Real Estate Utilisation

Overlapping and Redundant CTA Placement

3.1
Audit exhibit A.
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To name but a few

Overlooking legibility & formatting.

Lack of visual treatment to support longer entries and text wrapping.

Finding structure amidst the chaos.

To make sense of an otherwise unconventional set of steps for creating a release, I started by exploring ways to foster a perceived sense of progress.

Shown in Figure 3.1, categorising releases into two stages helped mitigate the cognitive load of seeing all the steps at once.

Additionally, overly-technical terms were revised to better cater to a general audience.

3.1
User Flows
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Pinpointing the issues.

Having structure also helped surface some heuristic issues; whichmainly involved confusing navigation and lack of edge case considerations.

3.2
Updated User Flow
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Depth Interviews

I conducted three in-depth interviews, these interviews allowed me to explore participants' past experiences with music distribution platforms and their expectations for Beatclap services.

The findings confirmed my assumption that users prefer managing their music revenue and distribution on a computer, as they believe it minimises errors and streamlines the process.

One participant expressed their frustration:
"I find it incredibly inconvenient to track my music revenue across different platforms every single time. It's frustrating and time-consuming."

UPDATE FLOW

The backbone of the project.

You gotta start somewhere.

The Beatclap team provided me with a list of mandatory update instructions which included access to the existing Web App and a list of major competitors (Figure 3.0).

4.0
Competitive Benchmarking
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Finding structure amidst the chaos.

To make sense of an otherwise unconventional set of steps for creating a release, I started by exploring ways to foster a perceived sense of progress.

Shown in Figure 3.1, categorising releases into two stages helped mitigate the cognitive load of seeing all the steps at once.

Additionally, overly-technical terms were revised to better cater to a general audience.

4.1
User Flows
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Pinpointing the issues.

Having structure also helped surface more heuristic issues; which mainly involved confusing navigation and lack of edge case considerations.

4.2
Updated User Flow
IMAGE

Depth Interviews

I conducted three in-depth interviews, these interviews allowed me to explore participants' past experiences with music distribution platforms and their expectations for Beatclap services.

The findings confirmed my assumption that users prefer managing their music revenue and distribution on a computer, as they believe it minimises errors and streamlines the process.

One participant expressed their frustration:
"I find it incredibly inconvenient to track my music revenue across different platforms every single time. It's frustrating and time-consuming."

4.3
Persona
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LAYOUT PATTERNS

No fluff, consistent, and scannable.

Keepin' it old school — responsive layout grids.

A standard set of layout grids and breakpoints (Figure 4.0), was critical in ensuring we could design and build quickly and consistently.

5.0
Responsive layout grids
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5.1
Button Component Set
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5.2
Card Component Set
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Final designs

An effortless experience

Keepin' it old school — responsive layout grids.

A standard set of layout grids and breakpoints (Figure 4.0), was critical in ensuring we could design and build quickly and consistently.

6.0
Catalog - Releases
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Catalog — Simplified Access to Content

It was essential to ensure that users could seamlessly access all content related to their account in a clear, organized manner. The catalog was designed with a focus on clarity and ease of navigation, presenting relevant data in a structured, intuitive layout.

6.1
BeatStore
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Beatstore — Customisable merch creation

The Beatstore empowers users to create and personalise their own merchandise seamlessly. With a streamlined flow, users can easily navigate through color selection, print customisation, and final product previews.

6.3
Label Profile
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Label Overview

The label overview centralises key metrics, offering a clear snapshot of releases, artists, and recent activity. Its clean, intuitive layout allows users to easily navigate essential data and quickly access detailed information.

6.4
Release Creation
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Release Creation — mobile-first, step-by-step flow.

The release creation process is broken down into clear, manageable steps, allowing users to easily select asset types, add metadata, and upload tracks from any device

6.5
Release Creation
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Contracts

Create and access to your royalty splits, terms and payees.

A bittersweet ending.

Retrospective — key takeaways and growth.

Throughout the design process, balancing user needs with technical constraints was crucial. The iterative feedback loop allowed for constant refinement, ensuring a user-centric approach. This project highlighted the importance of seamless cross-platform experiences and the value of clear progress indicators in complex workflows.

Retrospective

A HUGE SUCCESS

Take an otherwise highly unorthodox update process and package it into a website to be as intuitive, error-free, and desirable as possible.

Project Takeaways:

Finding opportunities within constraints

Viewing constraints from different perspectives helped brew new approaches to tackle other constraints.

Leveraging existing resources

Beatclaps' design resources were limited —  knowing where to find them and when to use them saved immense time and overhead.

Cross-functional partners should be involved from the start

It ensured that the project was progressing holistically —
effectively accounting for content strategy and technical
feasibility early.

Simplicity was about reducing complexity, not quantity

If an added extra step led to a more intuitive and error-free experience, it was worth the additional manual effort.