Domestico
Project type:
Ecommerce website
Services:
Branding,
UI/UX,
Illustration
Client:
Domestico is an online ecommerce platform which can can offer you a really wide range of Home & Deco products for the cosy home you've been dreaming of!They work with exclusive distributors and direct importers to bring you a high quality of products and tools for your DIY project. Their amazing customer care of Domestico, combined with the gifts they send for each order makes them really stand out from other players in this business niche!
Project goals
The idea behind this project was to really offer end users a great customer service. The client knew that to win their target audience they had to bet on a modern design appealing to younger audience that are appealed to beautiful interior design. The design had to reflect the building nature of the products but not be too sterile.
The tone of voice for this brand is one of a friendly but reliable expert supporting you through your renovation's journey, that's why one of the goals was to deliver lots of useful information with each product along with general recommendations for interior work in the form of articles. The client needed end-to-end solution starting from branding all the way to the final high-fidelity screens for mobile and web ecommerce shop.
I had the pleasure to work with a client that was very open to innovations and listened to my advices. We had a few calls during this project where we either discussed next steps or were making QA sessions together, but they were all very productive and we kept a steady rhythm of work.
Approach
My approach to this challenge was to start with defining different abstract symbols for home, cosiness and security. I've made a few concepts for a logo and after we've agreed on a design direction and colour palette I've expanded the whole brand identity including typography, imagery, iconography etc. I've also managed to improve the overall feeling of uniqueness to the brand by creating custom illustrations for the different categories.
I've went with clean and very light design relying strongly on geometric shapes and also rounding most of the element's corners in order to match the style of the logo and keep some inviting softness. Icons coloured in the brands palette were used in the main navigation for easier differentiation of categories.
Next step was to wireframe all the screens in order to agree on the volume of content, layout and user flows. I was collaborating with Magento developers in order to identify potential bottlenecks and what can be easily customised within the clients budget.
Creative direction
Solutions
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For the Product listing and category pages we've decided to replace the boring stock images that usually people put in the headers, with beautiful custom illustrations that spiced up the design.
The heading of the page, discount labels, buttons and even filter pills were having a consistent shape pattern where a the two diagonal corners of the rectangle are fully rounded. The product box has subtle borders but prominent shadow effect on hover which contributes to the depth of the design.
As always I've recommended having plenty of filters for projects with so many different products. The main idea here was to make it as easy as possible for users to find the type and class of the product that they're looking for. -
The details page is where we had to come up with more creative ways to keep customers interest while helping them make the right decision if this product is for them. That's why we've included a summarising section like benefits in the beginning and later show the full table of properties for the item.
I've designed a tab navigation anchored to different sections of the page, changing on scroll so that we make it convenient for users to go back and forth and re-read content.
The unique approach to this brand is that they provide a manual for installing, operation and maintenance of each product even though they have hundreds or even thousands of unique inventory items. -
For the product category pages we've used some photos for the different sub-categories but we've kept them very simple, with smooth gradients and hover effects. We've decided that the idea with having an illustration for each category could be applied in the Mega-menu in the main navigation where people usually see lots of text without any graphical elements and are easily lost.
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Shopping cart and checkout are important screens where we've put effort into the smallest details which can have a great impact. Creating beautiful notification messages, tips for free delivery and the ability to edit product options are all contributing for a better overall experience.
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The client had the idea to regularly publish helpful and very detailed articles about different stages of home renovation and decoration. But these were planned to be not a random sequence and instead ordered as a chapters of a book. That's why the blog section of the site is split in two categories - news & advices, and the latter is designed as a table of a book's contents.
Mobile version
The mobile version for the site was having a custom solutions instead of just using a responsive version of the web one. We had the main navigation stripped down so that only search and shopping cart buttons are shown, but everything else was just a click away in the hamburger menu. However we've included a shortcut for the subcategories while browsing the product or category listing next to the sorting option for convenience. I've played with typography to bring an optimal legibility for the smaller mobile screens.
Client Testimonials
I have never worked with a designer who has such a capacity to perceive what we have in mind as a finished product, to make that vision come to life and to execute the project as smoothly as possible! Georgi is not only a true visionary with a sharp eye for details in places you would never think of looking at but he has the theoretical knowledge and practical experience to back his work up. I would strongly recommend collaborating with him if you are satisfied with nothing less than an impeccable design.