PROJECT OVERVIEW

My Role: UX Designer for Williams-Sonoma,Inc.

PROBLEM

Currently, Williams-Sonoma International's (WSI) franchise partners fill in spreadsheets, call, fax, and send in their Buy Requests for wholesale orders in many different ways. WSI would like a scalable, turnkey solution for Franchise and Wholesale purchase orders. When creating buy requests from multiple brands within WSI, the process can be confusing and lengthy. WSI wants to create a streamlined, simple order portal to help customers submit buy requests, track their orders, and reorder.

CHALLENGE

Create a simple portal website that includes all the necessary order fields and details for wholesale ordering without any friction. Help returning customers track their orders and create new buy requests quickly.

SOLUTION

We designed an order portal that has a simple homepage with a menu to access all the brands. Support and managing buy requests are accessible to the customers on every page. The main order form functions similarly to a spreadsheet but is sectioned off, so it's easier to visually scan and fill in details.

Another part of our solution was to create a responsive design that is easy to use on the go for tablets and phones. Please view: WSI Order Portal Mobile Design for more details.

RESEARCH

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS?

My first goal was to research our customer's needs to understand the high-level goals and make sure we were solving the right problems. I approached the product manager and director with a series of questions to understand Williams-Sonoma's ordering process and our customers' goals. They had interviews from their customers that I was able to pull insights from.

Pain Points

Confusing order process
Lost inventory
Difficult to manage and track orders

Goals:

One website location to order products from WSI brands
Streamline process for purchasers to complete orders for partners
Create transparency for all teams and partners for all phases of the order process

sitemap.
Created this sitemap to understand the global navigation of the Order Portal.

user flow.
High-level user flow captures the order website process from the perspective of a Franchise and Wholesale partner.

SKETCHING & WIREFRAMES

I created sketches and met with the product manager to collaborate on ideas.

With the product manager we came up with a basic layout for all the pages based on the sitemap and user flows.

VISUAL DESIGN

color palettes. I created mockups using two different color palettes based on existing brand colors and reactions from my team.

visual mockups with color themes.

USABILITY TESTING

Feedback from Usability testing:

“The filtering is confusing with the popup.”

“How does the Import/Export work?”

“Is the second popup necessary for the reset password page?”

“It's confusing to arrive at the create buy request without an introduction. Looks like the form is already filled in.”

I used the feedback from these sessions to rework the filtering section and consider which popups were necessary to keep.

FINAL VISUAL DESIGNS &
UI KIT COMING SOON!

Mobile Site

jokes.
In one of our daily stand-up meetings someone suggested more rainbows and unicorns. It was too tempting not to try. I received positive feedback but decided against moving forward with this "rainbow" - themed design.