PROJECT BRIEF
REDACTED is a large natural health products retailer. The products are primarily distributed through independent distributor sales, in a network marketing model, much like Herbalife or Mary Kay. In addition to moving product via the distributor channel, REDACTED also conducts direct-to-consumer sales via the company website.
I was tasked with updating the old, outdated website with a new, modern take, designed to function equally well on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, with a focus on ease of use, user experience and interaction for an older audience, and big, bold photography and typography to highlight the redesigned product line.
CHALLENGES
CHALLENGE 1 : Responsive
With the wide variety of screen sizes and shapes in today’s internet landscape, from super-wide 4K screens to legacy phones in vertical orientation, making a website adaptable and responsive to all devices was key to a successful user experience.
CHALLENGE 2 : Product Navigation
The company principal at REDACTED wanted to use a visual product menu that showed each product as the user browsed the site. With 11 products and 5 product packages, each with differing sizes and shapes, it was going to be difficult to make a sensible, quick loading, responsive menu that would fit the bill.
CHALLENGE 3 : Customizing
When a new independent distributor signs up with the company, they are granted their own customizable storefront, based on the standard company website. www.REDACTED.net becomes Distributor.REDACTED.net. This grants the product distributor a chance share a personalized message and photos to share with his customers.
The new website needed to function equally well for both the standard version, and the thousands of customizable versions that existed for each distributor. Furthermore, these thousands of customized messages and photos had to be carefully carried over to the new site without upsetting our existing distributor base.
CHALLENGE 4 : Ease of Updating
With thousands of customized user pages, two countries of operation, and three languages to account for, the design needed to flow smoothly with the back-end and database portions of the site to ensure ease of updating for all future changes and modifications.
