Premier Supplements
The go-to place for high-quality lifestyle and gym supplements.
Overview
I was tasked with re-building an e-commerce site that would help Premier Supplements drive sales while also standing out against the competition. Their original site was slow and was missing some key functionalities. We moved their site from WIX to Shopify.
Additionally to this movement, we designed a logo and brand for them.
My goal was to use the key methodologies to help create a better user experience for people booking a hotel. This was left open for us to determine through our research and analysis.
Role
UX Designer & Web Developer
Duration
2 Months
Team
3 (2 of them were Owners)
Constraints of Project
Low Budget
The work was done for a local startup, so they didn’t have much cash. They paid for the design and development only.
Time
Like all projects, the client wanted the re-design done as soon as possible as they were paying a subscription to a website that wasn’t getting them results.
No UX Understanding
The client didn’t understand nor appreciate the benefits of spending time on UX as a starting point.
01 // Brand Strategy
Building a brand was an important part of Premier Supplements' business, as the market is very crowded and they needed to stand out. A distinct brand identity helps to differentiate their products from competitors and can increase customer loyalty.
🔎 Goals of Branding
Create a brand that was modern and appealed to the modern gym goer
Avoid a ‘discount store’ vibe. Premium style was required
Adaptable to allow other brand names to stand out (Per4m etc.)
02 // Listening
Listening to customers' needs and wants is essential for a company's future. It gives you insight into how customers perceive you on a daily basis. Acting on customer feedback ensures they are satisfied with their experience and that their needs are met promptly. This will help you stand out from the competition and build a loyal customer base.
🔎 Goals of Listening
Understanding what consumers want in regards to products
Discover why customers are not completing purchases or choosing competitors
Understand what they like and don’t like when trying to purchase an item
📋 Interviews
No formal user interviews were conducted; however, Pa and Eoghan had experience with similar sites, so they were able to provide valuable insight into what is and isn't useful in the supplement industry.
💬 Chatting
Pa and Eoghan are constantly chatting to their customers as they meet them in the Gym and are friends with them. I also go to the gym myself, so we used a combination of my ignorance of the industry and their expertise on the subject to create a flow that works for their consumers.
📱Usability Tests
We didn't have time for formal testing, so we regularly asked people about their experience using the website. Pa and Eoghan would come back to me every two weeks with changes and ideas based on what they had heard from people after launch.
03 // Analysis
I found the analysis stage very useful when it came to collecting all of the data that I had gathered during the research phase. I realised at this stage also that a need to take notes better and highlight key findings better within those notes at the time of making them.
🔎 Goals of Analysis
Take the information I received from the lads and condense it into something actionable.
Delve deeply into the meetings to discover where their customers are dropping off.
Create a collection of key focus areas based on our gathered research.
Slow load time
We discovered that the website's loading time was poor, which caused visitors to leave.
Navigation
People reported that the app was "hard to use" due to its "laggy dropdown menus" that "didn't work when tapped".
Clunky Search
Search was clunky and took too long to load the results. It also didn’t display enough varied options either.
Best-Sellers
Changing products on the homepage was too time-consuming, so it was often left unchanged for months.
04 // Website Re-Design
A well-designed website should be easy to navigate, quick to load, and provide relevant information and products to users. It should also be tailored to the company's values, goals, and target audience. This redesign was intended to address these key points directly.
🔎 Goals of Re-Design
Increase loading speed and the rate at which customers can purchase products.m goer
Enhance the search feature to enable users to quickly navigate and explore the website.
Owners can quickly make changes to products, collections, and the homepage.
UX not Art
Speed was our time priority. How did we fix this? We moved from WIX to Shopify. We sacrificed some ‘artistic’ freedom for the fast user experience or Shopify’s theme based system. We kept the same brand identity here mixed with a Shopify theme. This increased the speed of the website dramatically.
Slow Load Time
One of the benefits of moving to Shopify was how well the menus, products, and collections worked together. Customers had no difficulty finding what they needed through search or the primary navigation. We don't have any exact figures for increased customer satisfaction, but it was well-received by people the owners know at their gym.
Cost
As a Product Designer, I always strive to consider business goals and needs. Moving to Shopify enabled us to reduce website subscription costs. Moreover, Shopify's superior CMS enabled owners to easily add, remove, or create collections. The Shopify subscription was more cost-effective, and the conversion rates increased from 2% to 4.5-5%, a rise of roughly 100%.
Conclusion
UX First
Designing something visually appealing doesn't always guarantee it will be a successful website. For e-commerce, I needed to prioritise conversions over style.
Speed Matters
Users will not accept slow products, which in this case means that it "wasn't working". This can have a negative impact on conversion rates.
Monthly Costs
As a business, cost-cutting is typically a top priority. I let exciting features and creative potential distract me from the monthly cost that Premier Supplements would have to bear.
On-boarding
As Premier Supplements was my client, I had to onboard them. I quickly realized that choosing a platform tailored to their needs was better than one that I found interesting. The client should always be the priority.