THE CLIENT:
Retail website alkisurfshop.com needed a redesign. Its homepage lacked an eye-catching identity needed to draw shoppers into the island lifestyle, let alone a shopping experience that could effectively make those dreams a reality.
The first question that entered our minds was: Why is there a surf shop in chilly, sunless Seattle?
This is owner "Kahuna" Dave's passion project. After life in Hawaii, he wanted to carry that island spirit to his new home in Seattle. He sources unique gift-worthy items from merchants across the Puget Sound to offer customers who happen upon his inviting beach-hut-styled shop on the shores of Alki Beach in West Seattle. As the person behind the brand, Kahuna Dave is warm, humorous and quirky. Unfortunately, none of this reflects through his website!
Alkisurfshop.com was your standard Shopify site, devoid of the charms of Dave's inviting brick and mortar shop, and limited in its shopping funnels. Its landing page was static, with no impactful hero image to compensate. Inventory was also divided into too many categories, leading to bare, dead-end pages that didn't encourage further browsing.
THE CHALLENGE:
I wanted the site to exude that mythic love for Hawaii, tempered with the charms of Seattle. The locus for this identity would start with the hero image, wherein classic Hawaii postcards meet shiny new Seattle.
So the question becomes "Why wouldn't there be a surf shop in chilly, sunless Seattle?"
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS:
I compared the sites of clothing brands that are renowned for their signature aesthetics evoking an aspirational lifestyle.
USER RESEARCH:
Used Extensio to map out potential personas, based on personal knowledge of the area and client-provided visual assets.
MOOD BOARD:
Evoking the central idea of a slice of Hawaii in Seattle
SITE MAP:
Sketched out an improved site navigation scheme.
Merged the site map and mood board into preliminary landing page sketches.
LANDING PAGE (final):
Used Illustrator to first create a grid, sketch out the basic layout, and add final design elements.
Landing page (full) | Tools used: Adobe Illustrator
Example women's catalog page