How would we redesign an eCommerce site for an art gallery-like RTG?
Project Overview:
Like many another art gallery, Richard Taittinger Gallery (RTG) struggled with its sales during the pandemic starting in 2019. As a result, their current shopping page showed all inventories with confusing categories, making it complex and time-consuming for shoppers to make selections and purchases. Therefore, the redesign aimed to help shoppers facilitate the shopping page. The new design made pages for art items easy to navigate, so customers could learn about various products and purchase them quickly. The whole shopping site was then adapted to the Shopify platform.
My Role:
I was the lead designer and worked from brainstorming, ideation, design, and iteration to the release of the new version. The project kicked off with a Stakeholder meeting to connect with art managers from RTG to learn about their objectives and requirements for redesigning their website. A content audit then followed to investigate current problems on the site. During this process, I conducted three user interviews then translated them into synthesis findings, then prioritized the features, and continued the iterated designs as we moved along. Last but not least, I have implemented the design on the Shopify site.
Team: Kehui Pan - Gallery Manager
Deliverable:
Synthesis
High Fidelity wireframes
Prototypes
Persona
User flow
Implemented design on Shopify site
Background
RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY was founded in 2014 by Richard Taittinger Gallery at 154 Ludlow Street. A 6,000 sq ft space on 3 floors designed by Studio MDA. A pioneer of New York City’s Lower East Side art scene, today RTG is surrounded by cultural institutions including the New Museum, the International Center for Photography, and the Brant Foundation. Pandemic impacted their business model. They needed to redesign shopping platforms and improved user experience on the website to promote sales.
Define
Challenges
• Visitors were interested in the prints, but both browsing and checking out processes were complicated and time-consuming. As a result, visitors gave up and left the website.
• The shopping page's slideshow only had images without captions or a call to action, which users had difficulty understanding. This led to trouble building a connection with the art pieces.
• The categories and filters were filled with jargon, and the navigation was confusing to use.
Performing a Remote Usability test on the website to validate that it worked as intended.
Persona
““ The thing I bought because I stomp cross and I wanted, so I spent money on it.””
Goal: Shopping items based on her interest
Erika | IT Manager | 40 years old
““ I want to get natural painting with some animals and flowers.””
Goal: Get a birthday present for his wife
Peter | Sale Manager | 39 years old
Opportunity
An art gallery website like RTG should be a place to educate and show the available art collections. Then add layers and a hierarchy of needs:
What is the most popular item?
What are the ongoing exhibitions?
What is good investment art?
Shop based on styles and functionalities
Design principles
Easy to browse and learn about the artworks
Clear visual indications
Design
Redesign process
I redesigned the shop page's information hierarchy, user flow, and product details based on the insights gained from research, then implemented the design on the Shopify site, including migrating WordPress data to the Shopify platform.
User flow
Based on where the user starts their journey on the digital platform, the user flow has considered starting shopping from either Google search or Instagram feed. The user interface design focused on the browse products including the home shopping page, discovering products, and viewing products.
Proposed flow
Wireframes
The new RTG shopping site looks at overall product categories, like new arrivals, top picks, shop by style, and functionality.
The product page provides detail of previews, artist info, behind the story, work from the artist, and similar products offering an immersive online shopping experience and creating an elegant and friendly environment for customers to shop.
Explore other Concepts in VR technologies
Virtual Reality Shopping Experience
What I learned
Bridging the gap between in-person and online digital platforms:
Throughout the project, I had an opportunity to visit the RTG gallery which differed in feeling and esthetics from the gallery’s online shop. While redesigning the site, the goal was to bridge the gap between in-person and online shopping, so customers can also have an intuitive experience when online shopping for artworks.
Utilize the resources around you:
As a contract designer, my challenge was finding out who to reach out to for redesign needs. The RTG staff helpfully provided contacts they used for such things as content design and marketing. So, at RTG, I was able to arrange weekly meet-ups with coworkers to check the process, answer questions, and learn company news.