PROJECT OVERVIEW

This was a student project in Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts (SVC) User Experience Certificate Program Visual Design class. The goal was to design one high-fidelity static prototype of a responsive website.

I re-designed the homepage of Elliott Bay Book Company. Elliot Bay, is a local bookstore in Seattle that offers over 150,000 titles tucked away in an enchanting atmosphere with multi-level cedar shelves. Their website did not reflect the charm of their brick and mortar atmosphere.

ROLE

Visual Designer

TOOLS

Pen & paper, Sketch

THE PROBLEM

After an initial audit, I discovered that Elliott Bay’s website was outdated and lacked a point of differentiation. It was not clear why new customers should visit Elliott Bay over the many bookstores in Seattle. The site was not easy to navigate due to the overwhelming amount of content and color variation.

THE GOAL

The goal was to use visual design to improve discoverability by decluttering the homepage and enhancing Elliott Bay’s main points of differentiation.

WEBSITE AUDIT

Before designing, I conducted an audit on Elliott Bay’s website to understand the areas for improvement.

STORE VISIT

After conversations with the staff, I discovered that Elliott Bay’s main points of differentiation are their Staff Picks and Events. Staff picks are handwritten notes from the staff describing what they love about certain books. The bookshelves are filled with staff picks.

ANALYZE & DEFINE

After analyzing my findings from the website audit and store visit, I created a minimalist, timeless, classic, and traditional design theme.

The goal was to maintain Elliott Bay’s traditional and classic theme, but modernize it by making it minimalist and timeless. In addition, I emphasized Elliott Bay’s Staff Picks and Events which are their main points of differentiation.

TYPE SYSTEM

COLOR PALLETE

Elliott Bay’s original forest green was used as an accent color to highlight important features on the website.

Mint and plum are cooler colors that provide color balance against the darker forest green.

Classic black was used in the text and logo.

FINAL DESIGN

Desktop View

Mobile View

Next Steps

If I were to continue working on this, I would re-design Elliott Bay’s entire website focusing on improving their information architecture and visual design.