LSG is a company lead by people with big dreams and big hearts. I uncovered this little gem of information after much time spent digging through their current website and clicking on orphaned links. Businesses are not always able to articulate all the things that make them special in the initial meeting process, but reading through past collateral is always my first stop when designing a new site. Take the time to know thy client.
LSG's website identity had become lost under the chaos of time. Ecommerce sites are especially prone to this, often focusing on the product and the sales funnel and forgetting the storytelling. Yes, customers like a discount and yes, cart abandonment campaigns are important, but a large reason why people buy is because they feel emotionally motivated! And weaving an engaging identity into your website is a low cost, 24/7 sales strategy.
The message here was certainly buried deep, but post research I found out 2 facts to galvanise customer engagement:
1. LSG puts in a lot of effort in to produce furniture which is environmentally friendly. They swap out the plastics for wood, use a non-toxic lacquer, and make products that last.
2. Due to a heartbreaking loss, LSG decided to donate significantly to the Starship hospital. You can read more about that here.
3. LSG love to create biophilic designs (bringing the outdoors in). They feel strongly that nature inspired products can not only look beautiful but improve learning outcomes. (This 3rd fact was one I knew from our initial interview, but combined, these aspects felt like winning identity to woo customers with.)
Typically the home page takes the starring role in site design. But with ecommerce, product hungry visitors will often enter the through a product page, make a few quick assessment clicks and disappear again, off into the ether. So before they leave, we needed to expose them to LSG's identity pillars, by baking in multiple touch points throughout the website.
Firstly, we needed solid information to link back to, so we created pages on:
To draw this information onto the product range pages, we embedded a block of 3 counter widgets below the products, each showing different statistics in a graphical manner. Counters make a compelling design option here because they introduce eye catching movement (while waiting for the products to load) and lend a factual undertone to the message being conveyed. Naturally each counter also linked back to its respective pillar page.
Amongst the usual sales tags shown on the product teaser; we introduced specific tags for "Starship donation" and "Eco responsible". With a quick glance over the products, visitors know that LSG is a company offering thoughtful products. Tagging also allows visitors to gather similarly tagged products.
On click through to the product page, we introduced badges which link through to supporting information.
On the Home page, I took the featured product section (the first place most visitors look) and interspersed it with blocks of intro content leading back to the pillar pages. While the content is unrelated to the products, it felt like a natural area to highlight the company.
Lastly, we wrapped the website in a theme which felt natural and soothing. Greens, browns and tans highlighted with a birchwood texture and balanced off with lots of white space to give the viewer plenty of room to breath.
If you have a project which requires equal parts; creativity, business acumen and experience in the development process, please get in touch today.
Learning Spaces Global's mission is to create natural, inspiring and environmentally responsible learning spaces which bring out the best in both teacher and student.
Matui works to create better health outcomes for all New Zealanders by providing meaningful intelligence to decision makers.
Communica has been a fantastic partner on this project, both in terms of development and UX design. I feel confident in the product and look forward to seeing the change it brings to New Zealand's primary health sector.