Context
Beaverton Kitchen Cabinets and Stone Inc. is a 13+ year, trusted local retailer for clients who are looking to build, construct, and design their dream kitchen and bath. The shop specializes in cabinetry, stone countertops, wood flooring, tiles, hardware, and building materials for kitchen and bathroom remodeling.
Solution
To solve for this, I came up with a 4 part solution:
Challenge
This mom and pops retail store has not updated their landing page since 2010. Their primary concern is outdated information. Another concern was their need for self-service support to keep up with the demands of customers.
Research & Discovery
To understand the problem a little bit better, we started by interviewing the customers who shop for kitchen and cabinetry in-store. Based on our research, we identified 2 main personas, the general contractor and the homeowner.
Crafting the experience
Planning the steps
With the goals redefined, I mapped out the two most likely tasks that Beaverton Kitchen Cabinets customers are looking for.
Picturing the experience
By mapping out the collected data, it helps me and my client put the customers' feelings and frustrations into perspective.
Reflections
In the end, we weren't able to launch this version of the website due to the constraints surrounding the clients website builder of choice. Nevertheless, the research insights were still valuable and gave a sense of direction for the future.
Learnings
For this website, I tried to incorporate a familiar navigation while introducing a new workflow to BKC. A lot of the customer experience will still rely heavily on sales reps, but by introducing self check-out and appointment booking, BKC can streamline its operations by reducing customer wait time.
Mapping out the commerce market
I performed a competitive analysis of the e-commerce landscape from the customer perspective. This gave me ideas of what users might be familiar with.
Additionally, by referencing and mapping out the check out flow of other big box cabinet retail stores and small local businesses, I was able to identify when and where the customer journey experience could be improved at BKC.
Client
Rick Kwong, Owner
Timeline
2 months
Role
UX Research, Visual Design, Prototyping, UX Writing, Product Design, Usability Testing
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Miro, InDesign, Procreate
Constraints
BKC is a small business with a limited budget in marketing. The client also needs to easily update the website which may cause some design limitations.
Creating digital content
From our day-to-day experience at BKC, we found that quite a bit of customers requested for a product catalogue. Many customer’s were also confused about our cabinet sizing. To meet their demands, I designed a product catalogue and cabinet size sheet using Adobe InDesign.
Key concerns:
Whether we sell by square feet or slab size
What new cabinet and countertop options BKC has stocked over the years
What cabinet and countertop slab sizes BKC carries
How many days cabinet assembly takes before order is ready for pickup
What information they need to prepare before a design consultation
Due to lack of information, customers result in calling the shop which further slows down the customer support.
We surveyed 20 customers who shopped for kitchen and cabinetry in-store and conducted 6 semi-structured interviews. Based on the survey and interview findings, we identified the following customer pain points in shopping process:
Existing Website
Homepage
UI design needs a refresh, outdated look
No longer carry “Special Order Cabinets”
“Cinnamon Alder”, “Coffee Glaze”, are out of stock
Brought in new cabinets style, “The Dalton Series”
Granites Page
As the business is shifting its focus from granites to quartz, many of the granite colors have already been discontinued and are limited in stock.
Product listing needs to be updated to reflect that.
Below is a brief overview of what we will be working with.
Flow 1: Book Appointment
Customers can quickly check pricing for budgeting purposes or directly purchase cabinets.
Flow 2: Self-Checkout
Customers can purchase cabinets and quickly check product listing for prices. This will alleviate the workload for sales reps and reduce customers’ wait time for a bid turnaround.
