Redesigning UX
The internet has provided an ideal way of making costumers save money on buying perfumes, since it eliminates most of the overhead costs, thus providing a way to offer discounts and keep a similar profit margin as physical shops. One of these budget-perfumeries is CheapSmells, based in Guernsey. CheapSmells needed an overhaul of their UX in order to stay competetive in today's overcrowded e-commerce field.
The old website had been designed to accommodate people who already have an idea of what they're looking for. It had a very rigid top-down structure that restricts the type of searches a user can perform which results in the longest possible search time. Needless to say this generated a lot of stress from an excess of choice and the comsumer feels like they're wasting their time. Directed and active searching however accounts for just a tiny fraction of the total search activity on the web, most people visiting this website will not be looking for something specific. Monitoring and browsing account for a much higher amount of information gathering techniques used by most people, and the current structure of the website did not accommodate this behavior.
The aim of this project was to resolve the place making problem this website had and address the heuristics issues it's been dealing with. Resolving these weaknesses combined with a graphics revamp enhanced the user experience significantly and the benchmark goals set by the company were exceeded.
