Website prototype and positioning for a furniture brand
LE-INVENTOR
LeInventor is a niche kitchen collection, designed and sold in the Baltic States.
To help test the feasibility of the product in the expanded EU market, I developed the marketing strategy, wrote the content for the website, and designed the website UX prototype.
To help test the feasibility of the product in the expanded EU market, I developed the marketing strategy, wrote the content for the website, and designed the website UX prototype.
About the project
Brand strategy
UX design
Content writing
The creative process
Strategy & discovery
The business
LeInventor is a company that designs and sells kitchen collections, with specially equipped modules—for improved organization and storage.
The business model
During the meetings with the business owners, we sketched the provisional business operation model in the expanded market. I learned about the sales logistics and the involved parties and gained first insights into the website's audience and purpose.
Dealers
Manufacturers
LeInventor
Dealership partners provide design services to clients, deliver the product on-site and manage the installation process.
Manufacturing partners produce, pre-assemble, pack, and deliver the product components to the dealers.
LeInventor's team remotely assists clients and coordinates order fulfillment. They support the dealer network with knowledge and training.
Problem to solve
Several LeInventor kitchens were designed, sold, and manufactured within the Baltic countries. The product received positive feedback and even praise from the customers. The website was required to gain insights into the advantageous export market geography—to help direct the development of the services, new relationship building, and marketing efforts.
Business maturity
LeInventor website's initial objective was to help test the product feasibility in the export market and eventually progress the business to the scaling phase.
Maturity
Scaling
Testing
Idea
Competitor overview
I overviewed the competitors' websites to examine and comprehend the purpose of the content and features. I organized the gathered info in a consequential form, showcasing a broad user's path—from deciding whether a product meets their needs to acting.
Decide
2
• Lots of images of the product
• Close-ups showing features
• Drawings showing application
• Materials gallery
• Catalogues with specs
• Available services
• Where/how to buy
• Close-ups showing features
• Drawings showing application
• Materials gallery
• Catalogues with specs
• Available services
• Where/how to buy
Context
TRUST
3
• Project gallery
• About the company
• News & events
• Virtual showroom
• Manufacturing process
• Certificates & awards
• About the company
• News & events
• Virtual showroom
• Manufacturing process
• Certificates & awards
Convince
ACT
4
• Schedule appt in the showroom
• Request information
• Brochure download
• Vector files download
• Request assistance or live chat
• Kitchen planning quiz
• Planning checklist download
• Request information
• Brochure download
• Vector files download
• Request assistance or live chat
• Kitchen planning quiz
• Planning checklist download
Convert
Decide
1
Purpose
• To find information about the product, services, and the company
• Product buyers—apartment and house owners looking to renovate their kitchen
• Landowners looking to build new homes from scratch
• Landowners looking to build new homes from scratch
Home owners
Architects
• Buyer representatives—architects and interior designers working on the residential interior project for a client, including the kitchen area
Kitchen designers
Target audience
I defined the website user groups, basing them on the business operations model and the insights drawn from the competitor analysis.
Age 27-55
Women 70%, Men 30%
Higher education
High income
Women 70%, Men 30%
Higher education
High income
Age 27-55
Women 70%, Men 30%
Higher education
High income
Women 70%, Men 30%
Higher education
High income
Age: 30-50
Gender: Any
The company owner
5+ years in the industry
Gender: Any
The company owner
5+ years in the industry
• Dealers—kitchen showroom owners and kitchen designers, looking to expand their product offering to buyers
User research
I put the focus on getting the insights from the buyers. Knowing what they might look for, I have come up with the interview questions. LeInventor's team reached out to past clients, to facilitate the interviewees' recruitment process.
Users expect the website to be rich in imagery—photos and drawings. The visual content is crucial to help the users decide to take action. Most buyers would like to get information about the purchasing process and understand the price range of the product.
I explained the goal of the conversation to the interviewees: “We are creating a website for a kitchen collection, and would like to hear about your experience with similar websites”. I talked with the homeowners and interior designers, seven people in total.
Defined user value
Context
The business owners wanted to test the product in the new markets while having little delivery experience, no showrooms, and no relationships with sales dealers. I had to think of an ethical way to engage the users to take action on the website—to collect the data about the most prospective market geography.
Delivering value ethically
Solution: Allow leaving information about the user's location to request contact from the dealer nearby.
No dealers
No showrooms
Solution: Allow leaving the contact info to get notified when the showroom opens nearby.
Solution: Create the product 3D visuals in different room layouts and styles to demonstrate possibilities.
Small portfolio
Building empathy
I held a workshop with the stakeholders, where we brainstormed ideas about the LeInventor brand. Our goal was to create an empathic connection with the product end-users, the homeowners.
The brand
• HELPS TO CREATE SERENE HOME ENVIRONMENTS
• HELP PEOPLE ENJOY LIVING THEIR LIVES, BEING FULLY PRESENT
• HELP PEOPLE ENJOY LIVING THEIR LIVES, BEING FULLY PRESENT
What tangible impact do we have on peoples' lives?
Impact
• INFORMATIVE
• EDUCATED
• RESPECTFUL
• TO-THE-POINT
• EDUCATED
• RESPECTFUL
• TO-THE-POINT
How do we want to sound when we communicate?
How we speak
Target audience
What qualities do our customers share?
• ACCOMPLISHED
• QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
• STRIVES FOR ORDERLINESS
• MATURE
• OPEN-MINDED
• QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
• STRIVES FOR ORDERLINESS
• MATURE
• OPEN-MINDED
• REASSURED
• DELIGHTED
• CALM
• HAPPY
• DELIGHTED
• CALM
• HAPPY
How do the people feel after being in contact with us?
Feeling
The X-factor
How LeInventor is different from other brands? Together with the owners, we have singled out three key elements.
Custom product,
done to expectations
done to expectations
Fast, simple and collaborative
ordering process
ordering process
Unique kitchens, designed
for keeping the clutter away
for keeping the clutter away
The mission statement
LeInventor's mission is to help people maintain order in their kitchens, homes, and minds. We use technology for simple ordering process to create kitchens, done exactly to clients' expectations.
I constructed website user personas—to create the images of the real people in the minds of the project participants. This approach shifted the perspective from the business goals to the user needs.
The depicted personality traits and device use preferences served as base points for the website requirements.
The depicted personality traits and device use preferences served as base points for the website requirements.
Personas
Website scope
Content & features ideas
We brainstormed a list of possible website features and content, relying on the insights and decisions made in the strategy phase. I labeled each option according to its place in the user decision path—from the evaluation process to taking action.
Gathering possibilities
Prioritization
To facilitate the collaboration process and trim down the feature and content options, I organized a "cards game”. Each participant had a "budget to spend" on the options thought to be the most important and feasible ones.
Documentation
Planing for user testing
Content specification
I created an outline for user testing after the website launch—including a usability survey to gather feedback and a plan for testing the website for errors and functionality flukes.
Functional specification
I mapped out a plan for content creation—described the content pieces by context, type, format, size, and quantity. I defined the level of client involvement in the content creation process.
I described the interactions and interrelations of the features and set the requirements for browser and OS compatibility, creating a textual agreement about what had to be designed.
Content drafting
I created a list of essential points for each written content piece—within the defined context. I composed the draft versions of the titles and formed the early versions of call-to-actions—while keeping the user goals and needs in mind.
Information architecture
The IA model
We discussed the IA model with the project participants to get everybody on board regarding the website's structural foundation.
I distributed the content and features into categories, labeled them with clear and descriptive phrases, and created a hierarchical tree model. I aimed to put the most relevant content at easy reach and apply the principle of progressive disclosure.
Switching to visual language
I sketched the website interface page by page, transforming the draft content and feature descriptions into a graphic form. I focused on finding the best visual solutions to present the content in a way that would make the users pay attention to the right things at the right moment.
Wireframing
I created the visual hierarchy by playing with the size and the distribution of the elements on the page. As a final step, I confirmed the sketches with the owner and the back-end developer.
Content writing
I created a brand vocabulary and included the humanized industry terms, to effectively explain the product to the users. I wrote the text for the website, using the terms and the brand voice, to craft an informative and engaging read.
I created visual consistency between parts of the website, and added affordances and noticeable distinctions for interactive elements. Organized the visual information within the grid, creating a hierarchy by aligning, proximating, repeating, and contrasting.
UX prototype
Crafted a style board for the website user interface by choosing a color palette and a font pair. Set an aesthetic direction for the visual content, namely interior renderings and photography. Designed the interface elements—such as buttons, links, and forms.
UI style board
Further development
I handed over the prototyp, and the mood board to the UI designer to finalize the desktop interface and extrapolate it to smaller screens. The designer is to work alongside the visual content creators and back-end devs, under my guidance.
