Made for More

Creating a socially conscious marketplace

Made for More matches designers with a cause partner to create an online marketplace that is focused on conscious purchasing.

Background

Made for More is a is a curated global marketplace aligning conscious designer brands with cause partners. 11% of every purchase supports the brand’s cause. From my background helping startups grow, I was interested in not only building a website, but building a business. I was drawn to the altruistic and sustainable aspect Made for More was trying to incorporate in the e-commerce space.

The Challenge

Made for More needed to launch their MVP e-commerce store. They wanted the site and business to be functional and on brand in 2 weeks. The site needed to cater to all 3 stakeholders of their business: the designers who sold their products on the platform, the causes the contributions would go towards, and the consumers who would purchase the products.

The Outcome

We built a website and functioning business for Made for More on Shopify. We not only developed the site but consulted on the design direction and business strategy.

My Role

UX Designer
Content Strategist
Information Architect
Developer

Our Team

CEO (client)

Scope

2 weeks

Our Process

discovery

Research to understand and empathize with user needs and behavior

user research, competitor analysis

ideation

Brainstorm potential solutions to the pain points identified

Brainstorming, sketching, co-creation workshops

design

Design the interface to visualize the solution in various fidelities

Wireframes, Shopify site

test

Test the design and iterate based on findings

Usability testing, user interviews

Discovery

User Research

The research to validate business proposition was done by the client before we stepped in. We learned that many consumers are eager to purchase unique, sustainable and glocal art from artists worldwide. There was also a heightened consciousness to purchasing sustainably either by purchasing items that are not mass produced, or by paying purchases forward by donating portions of your purchase to non-profits.

Competitor Analysis

We looked at similar companies to see how their website was created, what kind of value propositions they highlighted, as well as the types of products they sold.

Brands we looked at through our research

Ideate

Brainstorming

As there was a short turnaround for this project, we began by discussing the scope and then prioritizing what was crucial to the MVP.

Considerations
  • What platform to use
  • Which pages were crucial
  • What type of information we needed to create the pages
  • The logistics of setting up an e-commerce site that's fully functional
  • How does Made for More differ from other brands, what makes us unique
What We Agreed to Build for MVP
  1. Home Page
  2. Product Detail Page
  3. Designer Detail Page
  4. Checkout Flow
  5. About Us
  6. Legal pages: Terms of Service, Refund Policy, Privacy Policy

Design

Wireframes

We researched themes on Shopify that matched the aesthetics and capabilities that Made for More required. Made for More came with wireframes that we discussed and revised taking UX best practices, time and development into account.

Initial wireframes for the Home Page and Designer Page

Information Architecture

As we understood the items that needed to be on the site, we began to organize the information into the navigation. After some iteration and feedback, we set the navigation as the below for the MVP. Once the business starts to scale, we would have to create more detailed navigation to maintain intuitive hierarchy.

Navigation on the Shopify Site that we built

Content Strategy

Once the components were in, we worked on reordering and revising the content so it was compelling for the user, sent a clear message, and was functional.

Style Guide

Shopify has a preset hierarchy of which headings we can customize. For the most part, we stuck within the Shopify constraints and created a style guide. For the Designer page that allowed for more flexibility in the typography, we created an alternate heading to be more on brand. The colors were taken from the logo, and we experimented with various hues and saturation as the colors looked different depending on the the type of display.

Excerpt of our Style Guide

UX Writing

We were thoughtful on how we wrote our CTAs. It had to be short, concise, and mobile optimized but also on brand. For example, through iterations with user feedback we changed how a card would display in a hover state in the home page (below).

Progression of how we updated the writing of a card

About Us Page + Home Page Content

Another area we took time to refine was the content explaining Made for More on the About Us Page and Home Page. We wanted to created something concise and mobile ready, but also emotional and captivating.

Excerpt of the About Us page mentioning Made for More's offerings and values

Information Architecture

As we understood the items that needed to be on the site, we began to organize the information into the navigation. After some iteration and feedback, we set the navigation as the below for the MVP. Once the business starts to scale, we would have to create more detailed navigation to maintain intuitive hierarchy.

Navigation on the Shopify Site that we built

Website Launch

We developed the wires into Shopify to create a functioning site. Understanding how all of the elements in Shopify were linked helped me understand how to create each page. We also used some plug-ins to incorporate reviews, editing the theme, and creating new pages not offered by the Shopify theme.

Test

Usability Testing

Through stakeholder feedback, we continued to improve the pages after launch.

Improvements we made through refinement
  • Optimizing the UI for mobile
  • UX Writing: making text more concise but still emotional to fit in smaller screens
  • Updating the home screen so it will showcase more variety in the marketplace

Takeaway and Confirmations

design in relation to business

Building a Shopify website not only meant creating the pages, but also integrating the shipping logistics, checkout, legal jargon, email marketing into the site. Figuring out what was necessary to create a functioning business and integrating that into the development of the site was a great reminder of how business and product intertwine.

value propositions that stick

We spent a lot of time figuring out how to get our vision and message across to the 3 stakeholders who would access our site. Figuring out wordings of CTAs, Home Page, and About Us page to be on brand and also encouraging users to be interested in our work was a great challenge