The Perfect Rug
After reviewing the existing site, we could see that The Perfect Rug was offering value with a wide variety of rugs and many customization options. However, the interaction flows were not streamlined and the overall experience was clunky, making it difficult to choose and purchase a rug. In addition, the mobile version of the site was difficult to use and desperately needed a redesign.
We began our work by conducting a UX audit of the existing site, familiarizing ourselves with its strengths and weaknesses. There was a wide variety of shopping options, as well as a rich customization functionality. However, the flows were not optimized and the information architecture was confusing.
We continued our research with a competitive analysis to get a feel for the market and understand where The Perfect Rug sat in relation to its competitors. Though they had great quality rugs, the existing store was lagging in experience and branding. Multiple competitors seemed to have an edge in those areas.
Finally, we spoke with The Perfect Rug team to better understand their mission and customers. From this, we identified two key personas to target: shoppers and interior designers.
The shopper wants to buy a nice rug for her new home. She is looking for a custom-sized rug for her living room space that can fit well with her decor.
She needs an easy way to search and compare rugs, as well as find great tips and inspiration.
With our research in place, we began considering our approach for the new design. We wanted to highlight the beautiful rugs and helpful customization that were already in place, and make the search, selection, and checkout processes as simple as possible. We landed on a strategy that emphasized four core principles:
MOBILE-FIRST
• As many of our users shopped on their mobile phones, it was critical to optimize for mobile.
• One great design for both mobile and desktop was key.
OPTIMIZING FUNNELS
• We needed to simplify the shopping experience and enable customers to purchase easily.
• This meant removing steps from our flow, simplifying the user journeys, and enabling more flexibility in purchasing options.
REDUCING CLUTTER
• The site had too much content, making it hard to scan and navigate. It was necessary to scale it down to make the shop easier to use and understand.
• At the same time, our SEO was not optimal, so we needed to balance the reduction in content quantity by improving the quality of what we were showing.
MODERN LOOK & FEEL
• The brand was dated and needed a refresh to convey the right feel to our customers.
• A more modern look would better highlight the rug offerings and bring us up-to-date with the competition.
The design featured a simplified interaction model, improved organization, and serene visuals. We also introduced a number of features that made the platform more unified and easier to use. Finally, we implemented a brand refresh as part of the effort to make the site look modern and fashionable.
REFRESHED LANDING PAGE
We redesigned the landing page with the goal of simplifying the message and improving navigation. We wanted to ensure that customers could quickly find what they were looking for.
The new design was highly responsive and mobile-first since many of the users were accessing the site from a mobile device. We wanted to make sure that the user's experience would be high quality regardless of how they were viewing the site. The previous site was not optimized for mobile devices, which was a concern, given the large mobile traffic that the site had.
We delivered the final design to The Perfect Rug and ensured a smooth handoff to their development team. The redesigned site is now live and helping people find great custom rugs for their homes. With the updated branding and streamlined flows, customers are able to find what they need and make purchases with greater ease. The Perfect Rug was very satisfied with our work and gave us very positive feedback. Below are some of the comments that we received:
Anais C, Hiring Manager, The Perfect Rug
