07 Jan Crafting Rich Digital Experiences for eCommerce
“It is with trepidation that I venture into shopping malls”.
For a designer, I find it’s like being dropped into an ocean of massive breakings waves. Waves as large as mountains, crashing ceaselessly, tumbling me end-over-end to be expelled onto the shoreline. But if you can get underneath the breaking waves, the crowds, the noise, the mad rush to push onwards, I find that shopping malls can also be the most exquisite of coral reefs. At shopping malls, it becomes a place where colours, shapes, textures and layouts combine to construct engaging and captivating brands, offering rich and meaningful experiences. To wonder the crowded lanes and become immersed in the rich design offered by different stores. I often find myself constantly observing, dissecting and analysing how these elements combine to create a brand message that speaks of a captivating story and identity. It’s a fertile breeding ground where both inspiring design can be found next to the down right awful. Taking slow measured steps through the crowded hallways, I find many design lessons hidden throughout, unique gems, with a story to tell.
I rarely go anywhere without a notepad and pen, or at least some scraps to paper to jot my ideas down. Walking past various stores in the shopping mall, I began to notice subtle patterns in how they were designed. The typical trend for physical stores is rows and racks of products, crushed together tightly, hidden and waiting to be found. In the digital space, with the explosion of ecommerce, this trend has been replaced with a focus on showcasing individual products, highlighting the individual rather than the heaped mass. As a designer for ecommerce, this opens new opportunities to showcase products in new and engaging ways with image, composition and layout. These opportunities help to tell a story about the brand. In reflection, I was observing these patterns often found in the design of eCommerce stores escaping out of the digital domain and into the real world.
Rich Brand Stories done right
Examples such as Nike, Apple and IKEA change the way we interact with products both online and in store, treating them as individuals and showcasing them as such. Walking past the Nike store, with its brown wood panelled textures and enticing glowing logo drawing you inwards. I saw their feature wall containing sport shoes evenly spaced in a grid. Rather than using every available square inch of floor space to pack stock into, there were small racks of hats and shirts, tables with a small handful of products sitting on display. Simplicity and Authenticity are themes that resonated from the experience, the design of this store exhorts. The design elements were so reminiscent of the layout for an eCommerce website, it was uncanny.
Web Design no longer just for the Web
Observing these brands using their physical stores to tell their story using design principles so commonly used in web design has made me consider the impact the design for different mediums of digital and print are now beginning to more fluidly translate into each other. Where online store’s intent was to make products more accessible and easy to find and purchase online, the design principles used to achieve this have transcended the screen and now can be observed in the real world.
A common theme of modern web design is without a doubt minimalism a reductionist and utilitarian design style that too often creates stagnant and sterile visual experiences especially for ecommerce. Effective designers and designs use minimalism in concert with colour, image and shape, creating engaging and story-rich designs.
Designing new eCommerce Experiences
Observing how web design has influenced the design of stores, I question if it can also work in reverse. The brand messages created in the interior design sphere are rich and meaningful. To further develop and connect the experience offered online and offline are important to create consistency, regardless of where customers connect. Each year, I aspire to take stock of my contribution towards web design through the products I produce. With the numerous articles now available, highlighting the new upcoming trends for 2018, my observations from the shopping mall has inspired me. The unique designs to be found in stores should translate into the design of new eCommerce websites. The result of this style of concept eCommerce store create opportunities to create memorable and captivating digital experiences. A lesson learnt from the shopping mall is that businesses that place importance on their branding and design stand out from the crowd, whether their customers actively perceive it or not. They offer an intentional experience through their design and this is a lesson that the digital arm of brands must ensure they adopt. The main difference is the unique and creative application of modern web design principles and these are important lessons for the experiences we create as designers. This not only avoids stagnation and a manufactured quality of the websites we produce, but ensures that we can continue to create and explore captivating customers experiences that can transcend both the physical and digital spaces.
No Comments