Wonka Bookstore
Website Design Case Study
The Space Between Us
Explore artwork that captures the subtle connections and meaningful gaps that define the human experience.
01 Product Overview
The Product
Ｗonka bookstore is a books store that offers affordable pricing options. The typical user is between 20-30 years old, and most users are college students or early career professionals who need to buy books.
Ｗonka store goal is to make shopping fun, fast, and easy for all types of users.
Project duration
February 2024 to March 2024
The problem
Available online shopping websites have cluttered designs, inefficient systems for browsing through products, and confusing checkout processes.
The Goal
Design a Wonka bookstore website to be user friendly by providing clear navigation and offering a fast checkout process.
02
Understanding the user
My Role
UX designer leading the Wonka bookstore website design
Responsibilities
user research,
paper and digital wireframes,
low and high-fidelity prototyping,
Conducting usability studies,
accounting for accessibility,
iterating on designs
responsive design
02 Understanding the user
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User research
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Personas
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Problem statements
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User journey maps
User research : Summary
I conducted user interviews, which I then turned into empathy maps to better understand the target user and their needs. I discovered that many target users treat online shopping as a fun and relaxing activity when they need a break from school or work. However, many shopping websites are overwhelming and confusing to navigate, which frustrated many target users. This caused a normally enjoyable experience to become challenging for them, defeating the purpose of relaxation.
User research : Pain points
1
Navigation
Shopping website designs are often busy, which results in confusing navigation
2
Interaction
Small buttons on shopping websites make item selection difficult, which sometimes leads users to make mistakes
3
Filter
Unable to quickly find the type of books the users likes
4
Experience
Online shopping websites don’t provide an engaging browsing experience
Persona: Amy
Problem statement:
Amy is a busy college student who needs intuitive website navigation and search filters because they want online shopping to be stress-free.
User journey map
I created a user journey map of Amy’s experience using the site to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.
03 Starting the design
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Sitemap
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Paper wireframes
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Digital wireframes
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Low-fidelity prototype
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Usability studies
Sitemap
Difficulty with website navigation was a primary pain point for users, so I used that knowledge to create a sitemap.
My goal here was to make strategic information architecture decisions that would improve overall website navigation. The structure I chose was designed to make things simple and easy.
Paper wireframes
Next, I sketched out paper wireframes for each screen in my app, keeping the user pain points about navigation, browsing, and checkout flow in mind.
The home screen paper wireframe variations to the right focus on optimizing the browsing experience for users.
Stars were used to mark the elements of each sketch that would be used in the initial digital wireframes.
Refined paper wireframe
Paper wireframes screen size variation(s)
Because Wonka Bookstore customers access the site on a variety of different devices, I started to work on designs for additional screen sizes to make sure the site would be fully responsive.
Digital wireframes
Moving from paper to digital wireframes made it easy to understand how the redesign could help address user pain points and improve the user experience.
Prioritizing useful button locations and visual element placement on the home page was a key part of my strategy.
Easy access to find the books
Classified books
make homepage
is easy browsing
Digital wireframe screen size variation(s)
I also started to work on digital wireframes for additional screen sizes to make sure the site would be fully responsive.
Low-fidelity prototype
To create a low-fidelity prototype, I connected all of the screens involved in the primary user flow of adding an item to the cart and checking out.
At this point, I had received feedback on my designs from members of my team about things like placement of buttons and page organization. I made sure to listen to their feedback, and I implemented several suggestions in places that addressed user pain points.
Usability study: Parameters
Study type:
Unmoderated usability study
Participants:
2 participants
Location:
Taiwan, Remote
Length:
20-30 minutes
Usability study: Findings
These were the main findings uncovered by the usability study :
1
Cart
Once at the checkout screen, users didn’t have a way to edit the quantity of items in the cart
2
Checkout
Users weren’t able to easily copy the shipping address information into the billing info field
3
Account
During the checkout process, there wasn’t a clear way for users to log in to their account to pre-fill previous billing and shipping info
04 Refining the design
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Mockups
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High-fidelity prototype
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Accessibility
Mockups
Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to improve the site’s checkout flow. One of the changes I made was adding the option to edit the quantity of items in a user’s cart using a simple “+” or “-” option. This allowed users more freedom to edit their cart without going through a complicated process to add or remove items.
Before usability study
After usability study
To make the checkout flow even easier for users, I added a check box that allowed users to use the same address for billing and shipping.
Before usability study
After usability study
Mockups: Original screen size
Mockups: Screen size variations
I included considerations for additional screen sizes in my mockups based on my earlier wireframes. Because users shop from a variety of devices, I felt it was important to optimize the browsing experience for a range of device sizes, such as mobile and tablet so users have the smoothest experience possible.
Accessibility considerations
1
When choosing a color palette, I made sure my primary colors met WCAG AA Compliance before building out the UI for each screen.
2
I am using only two typefaces: Barlow for headlines and Raleway for body copy.
Mixing too many different typefaces can make your app seem fragmented and busy.
3
I implemented a text hierarchy throughout the app. This helps users to distinguish the different sections and information on screen.
05 Going forward
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Takeaways
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Next steps