Bringing Life Back To vintage
Saving Time and Simplifying The Shopping Experience
Overview
We brought the real world shopping experience to the Brass Antics’ website. Utilizing clear item descriptions, detailed pictures, and a standardized navigation system, we created a personal shopping experience for the vintage enthusiast.
My Role
User Research
Design
Team
Vivian Loh
Alfiya Shaikh
Sharon Hechtenkopf
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Methodologies
User Interviews
Design Studio
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Client
Brass Antics, a small vintage store
in Kensington, MD
Shoppers Buy Vintage for Better Quality
I asked users how they determine what makes a vintage item worth purchasing. They told me they take their time to get to know condition and quality of what they’re buying.
Craftsmanship
High-quality craftsmanship and unique designs are hard to find.
Experience
Seeing and feeling an antique determines its value.
Sense of Discovery
shopping in-person brings a thrill of new, unexpected discoveries.
What Makes Vintage Shopping Worth It?
With the insights gained from user interviews, we created a persona to represent all the thoughts and feelings of our users. Antique Annie was our north star guiding us throughout the design. When we made decisions, we considered how it would impact Annie’s experience.
Bringing the Tangible Experience to Online Shopping
We broke down the design challenge and developed How Might We statements to explore possible solutions.
How might we translate the positive associations with in-store shopping (sense of joy and discovery) into an online experience?
How might we provide clarity about the vintage item’s material and imperfections?
Understanding the Digital Vintage Space
Finding Inspiration From Competitors
Before we started designing, we looked to other vintage websites, both small business and large company, to see how they sold their products.
We also analyzed the the filtering options used on the website. Since vintage inventory is always changing, we found that shopping by item availability and by price were a great place to start.
Showcasing the condition and any imperfections it may have.
Important details like dimension, materials, country of origin and condition of the item in a well organized layout.
Crafting A Solution
It’s All In The Details
Brass Antics is a website that offers vintage enthusiasts the ability to discover and get to know a vintage item’s craftsmanship and imperfections through:
Detailed pictures (showing scratches, chips, wear and tear)
Detailed descriptions (how an item feels, its dimensions, and weight)
Broad filtering categories (price range and availability)
The website is further strengthened by the founder’s unique aesthetic, and her personal touches make it feel genuine, warm, and personable. By providing an e-commerce experience that values transparency and authenticity, users feel more secure in their purchase.
Vintage Charm On A New Platform
After determining how we would solve the problem, I started to sketch wireframes.
To reduce the overwhelming amount of text, we designed an expand and collapse feature for the description, specifications, and shipping & return policy.
Annie can adjust the price filter to fit her budget.
Successful Usability Testing
Leveling Up The Design
“I appreciate having easy access to product details such as descriptions, specifications, dimensions, condition, and shipping and return policies. Those are the things that I definitely want to see when I’m actually on the product page” - Usability Testing Participant
During usability testing, I evaluated participants on how they navigated through the prototype and how confident they felt making a purchase.
While observing the users, I noticed that they felt secure while navigating the website and fully understood the details of the product before purchase.
Diving Into The Story Giving The Design A Personal Touch
I edited all the UX copy for every page of our final prototype including item descriptions, shipping and return policy and the about us page.
Reinfoced with pictures, the higher fidelity product page now allows users to see in detail what the condition of the item is. This, along with detailed descriptions, give the user more confidence in knowing what they are paying for.
Final Prototype
Results
The website is being developed and is projected to be live in early 2024.