Features Needed on the Site
To make the user experience of We are Cow online shop as easy to navigate and explore for the user, as well as to make sure the site appeals to the target audience whilst reflecting the ethical/asetheical style of the brand the site need to be redesigned. The site needs to have more features added that reflect it's brand uniqueness as this is the main selling point of the brand but currently the website does't mimic this. It needs to imitate the personal, vintage, handmade, ethical, quirky features that the shops portrays via design to make it appeal to the target audience to increase sales. The brands website needs to use digital techniques via the design to reflect these theme to increase the target audience interest as well as to fit with the visual physical versions of the shop, give a more solid similar brand visual identity.
THEMES NEED TO BE REFLECTED -
personal, vintage, handmade, ethical, quirky, reflect the benefits of vintage shopping, colourful, busy, pattern heavy, bold, love, kind, eco, caring, peaceful/anti-war, anti-troy, vegan/vegetarian, community
Also as the target audience is generation z, they will have a smaller attention span so the site need to be easy to use, quick to navigate, attention grabbing but also have links to social media sites they will heavily use. Due to this the sites need to be simple and follow the same basic layout seen on most clothing websites which has already been analysed as this layout is what the audience will be familiar to therefore they will be able to use this style of design easier without instruction. But also have more unique benefits that reflect the brand personal style/branding/ethics to standout via its unique selling points.
-same style basic layout but with unique features/design aspects
main features needed to be used by the user (basic)
logo
search bar
cart
basic categories bar
currency button
sign in/register
account link
contact us
delivery/returns
features that make it more user friendly, easy to navigate taken from other clothing sites (enhancements)
catwalk view
related items
recent searches
quick view/scoll over view
refine define searches
sort by options
360 view
saves items
sizing guide
reviews
review sizing bar
blog /magazine links
shop via trends
store locator
sign up email
links to social media
shop by outfit
outfit tags
options for vintage
ideas for the site / features specialized to vintage/cow
donate to charity -
as the company in store heavy supports and allows its customers to donate to different charities this option wi
ll allow the user to do this digitally reinforcing the ethicality of the brand. will be done at checkout.
issue - seem pressured? can students afford this?
ethical clothing-
as the clothing on the site is recycled or reworked recycled material this appeal to the target market as they heavily care about the environment and environmental issues therefore highlighting this aspect of the products will allow the audience to be more interested or inclined to by the products as well as increasing view on the site. will be sorted into refined search or search options
issues - all the clothes are ethical so would this go on all the items?
vegan opitons-
as the target user of this site is very ethically aware and a new trend for this market is being vegan and not using any animal harming products, if the site has an options for vegan or non animal harming products this will help the site appeal to this audience morality. Having a vegan selection tool will make the user experience for vegans and the target market easier as they will know directly what they can and cant buy therefore reducing time lose via searching. The physical shops for this brand has selected areas/spaces for vegan clothes as try to directly improve custom for this audience whilst targeting this market, linking this to the website will allow more of a brand link between the mediums. Reinforcing the vegan items available will reinforce to the audience the shops ethical stance which is a unique selling point of the shop.
issues- might annoy people who hate vegans, this seems to be trend
gender neutral/ unisex
from feedback for the target audience it was made clear that the shop sells items that could be gender neutral, items that either gender could buy and wear, therefore having this as a option will allow the user to search for items like bag/coats without having predicted genders enforced on them. It gives a boarder search option for the user as there will be more items in the joint categories. Also the shop targets people who have a more open minded views, currently there are a lot of media attention and stories about transgender or no binary gender types and the negative effective of gender roles being enforced a way to appear more aware and supporting these issues is to create a uni-sex option for people surround these issues. It will allow the shop to stand out as this forward thinking, new age movement ideology isn't seen to be supported by many clothing brands. This also means the website could be seen to support LGBT ect community, the brand would support these openminded view and reduce discrimination via supporting this with a uni-sex/non binary option.This will allow the website to be seen as more ethical and supportive which links with appealing to the audience via their ethical believes.
issues- which clothing will go here? might confuse the user? people class different clothes as unisex
cow community-
instead of having a sign up or email account with the business, this is instead called the cow community this would effectively be the mailing list but would be phrased like this to appeal to the audience more as a caring supporting community rather than a commercial money grabbing brand. the cow community would snd out discount codes, lettering information about jobs ect but also allow people to email in with any events or adverts or idea that have for the store, this will allow the users to feel like they have a more personal, useful connection to the band.
issues - sounds like a cult
donate clothes-
As the shop currently creates clothes and re-sell other vintage items, this is part of the eco friendly aspect of the shop to reduce waste/engery it takes to make items but this ida is to create apart of the shop where customers can trade or swap their clothes with other members of the cow community. This part of the site would be a in the style of sites like depop/ebay where they can trade clothes for either discount for the shop or with others. The shop would either take a percentage of the swaps or make the audience pick up from the shop as this would encourage human traffic in the shops which would encourage spends in the shop after the visit.
issues- will buy these not item from the store
instagram shop-
This idea would take the advantage of the online shops large following and their more brand associative social media sites by having tags on their images and links to product number so the user can search these tags on the website and get the correct item easily. This would allow the site users to easily find direct items without having to search all their products. This makes the use of the site faster for the user therefore would be a better experience rather than having to search a large amount of products to find the need item.
issues - search the products shows more items they might like / searching get more product views
outfit page-
This is a page on the site where outfits from the instagram or their social media site or photography taken in the store have been laid out and styled fully but have link to all the different items used to make up the outfit. This will show the user firstly how to buy/wear a full outfits thats what they are looking for but also allow they to see what they could wear with items they already own and how to style outfits differently. This would take advantage of how forever 21 uses an outfit option on their app but allows the audience to find all the different part of the outfit including jewellery rather than just find the main item which is an issues with the forever 21 app version. This makes it easier for the user to see how to ear their products as well as see how to style them but also buy item that work together on the same page.
issue - might run out of the item
as the target audicene will be heavily interested in
music and on screen media can use music this could be applied tot he site, this would represent the music that is played to set the atmosphere in the actual site
this is done instore via manikins -
textured search
This page would separate out the different part of the store into different textures, this is as from primary research it was made clear the shop sell selected item (for example leather jacket and checked shirt) in texture specified section, applying this to the website will make the site reflect the shopping experience for the user as well as allow the user to search the site easily for what they are looking if they have selected product in mind. Other shops do this partly for example jeans, velvet as it allows the user to search more directly into this field without having to type in it the search bar which takes a large amount of clicks.
issue- might find it harder to look if they prefer search, user might want to look for jean skirt if they specifically aim for a selected item of denim which need to be search for anyway so might be pointless for specialized outcome searching. will it even be effective/useful.
done instore via rails/walls -
handcrafted/personal aspects
one of the main benefits of the shop itself is it's personal, non commercial aspect of the brand and the store therefore this idea is to bring this into the design of the page as this will link the shop, social and site more direct which fulfill the aims for the design. The design will reflect the messy, imperfect nature of the brands style as well as works with the idea of creating a community for the site to reflect this benefit of the shop. Also hand-created type is seen generally seen as more eco friendly/ethical as its used widely to reflect this nature though-out advertising via business that support these believes. Another feature of this style of text is that smaller less commercial companies use this style of type due to lack of funding for their advertising or due to ease, therefore it implys ideology this to the brand via association.
issues -legibility for audience
used for section dividers/information/signs in store -
blog
the blog is major part of the sites aspect that will appeal to the target audience as blogger/blogging is becoming increasing popular over social media sites including Instagram which the target audience interact with and will use heavily therefore links to current trends that will associate with/be part off. Also the sites blog uses this blog heavily as a way to connect with the audience to communicate trends, offers, work placements ect available to them therefore it is an important tool for the brand which on the current site is slightly over looked. This need to be bought more to the users attention via the design of the site.
issues -distract from the sites sales/the products
Welcome Page-
When visiting the physical store the customer are greeted by the staff straight away, this personal greeting informing the idea that store cares about the individual customer, find a way to digital introduce the user to the page before the home page.
issue - will it annoy the user, pop ups sometimes annoy people
Headers -
From research into the primary research into the store there was a few different signs around the store for the different parts, most of there were hand created or decrotive signs that highlight the different sections for the customer. This made it easier to know which section of the store the user was at but also was used to express the different style, give a personal touch to the store. Use page header at the top of the pages on the item pages to mock this digitally.
issue -too visually busy with a background?
ideas to include
defiantly
welcome page
blog
unisex clothing option
vegan page
outfitshop page
texture shop
handcraft/personal touch
maybe (ask in crit)
instagram page link/scroll bar
cow community link
money donation option
headers
not included
ethical clothing, as all the clothing is mostly ethical
clothing donation