E-commerce Website Redesign
Kinder haus toys The Kinderhaus redesign project focused on transforming a local toy store’s online presence into a warm, user-friendly e-commerce experience that reflects its brand values of trust, quality, and community connection.
Year
2024
Client
kinderhaus Toy store
Goals
The goal is to redesign the KinderHaus Toys website to enhance user experience by creating a visually engaging, responsive, and accessible ecommerce platform that incorporates intuitive navigation, product images, and interactive features like filters, pricing, and add-to-cart functionality, while fixing typographical errors to increase user engagement and boost online sales.
Challenges faced by Business:
KinderHaus Toys is a family-owned specialty retail business, operating both a physical store in Arlington, Virginia, and an ecommerce platform at www.kinderhaus.com. Since 1982, it has focused on selling high-quality, educational toys, books, clothing, and gifts for children, emphasizing products that promote creativity, STEM learning, and imaginative play.
The challenge is Kinderhaus Toys website suffers from significant design flaws that undermine its e-commerce potential. The text-heavy, static layout lacks product images, interactive elements, or a clear navigational structure, resembling an outdated HTML page with typos (e.g., "Stieff" for Steiff). Essential features like pricing, add-to-cart buttons, and product filters are absent, as is responsive design for mobile users, making navigation clunky.
My Role:
As part of this independent e-commerce redesign project, I was tasked with creating a user-friendly and visually engaging website
Design Process:
Discover phase:
Heuristic & Usability evaluation:
I began my UX research with a Heuristic Evaluation to quickly identify and address usability issues. Below are the key takeaways from the evaluation.
The home page is busy and cluttered with video and too many mixed colors.-
Match between system & the real world
The global navigation is not organized well and there are two navigations which is confusing to the users. Facebook and twitter has wrongly placed which is looking unprofessional
Consistency & Standards
User expects to buy books, cloths and toys when he or she checks into this home page, but there is not add to cart buttons available for some products.
User Control & freedom
When user get into the toys page, it shows the pictures of virtual window shopping pictures instead of products to purchase, under the second global navigation “popular products” are the list of categories and list of products to purchase we can see which makes users frustrated and time consuming process to find the product.
Error Prevention
There is no checkout page is available and add to cart option for some products and also categories are not available to filter the products at the beginning of the shopping process
Error Prevention
Second global navigation is not properly located & creates confusion to the end users, virtual tour, popular items, newsletter and find us/contact needs to be reorganized. The logo font is not clear to read by the users
Aesthetic & Minimalistic design
key takeaways:
Cluttered Homepage: The homepage is visually overwhelming with too many colors, fonts, and a video, making it hard for users to focus.
Confusing Navigation: Two global navigation menus create confusion; key links like “Virtual Tour” and “Newsletter” are poorly placed.
Poor Content Prioritization: The homepage emphasizes company information over relevant product content, making it harder for users to start shopping.
Missing Shopping Features: Key e-commerce elements like “Add to Cart” and a dedicated checkout page are missing for some products.
Inadequate Product Display: Product pages (e.g., toys) show irrelevant visuals like store interiors instead of actual purchasable items.
Branding and Professionalism Issues: Unreadable logo font, excessive font styles, and misplacement of social media links undermine professionalism.
Disorganized Layout: Important information like store address and “About Us” is poorly positioned, adding to user confusion and reducing usability.
After identifying the usability issues, I decided to validate those pain points with end users to ensure that our findings accurately reflected their real experiences and needs.
User interviews:
So, I conducted user interviews to understand the toy and book shopping habits for children aged 3 to 5. I spoke with participants such as parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and friends of young children. Based on a questionnaire I prepared, I gathered insights into the shopping behaviors of six participants.
User interview outcomes:
Affinity Mapping & I Statements:
Competitive and comparative analysis with competitors
After conducting user interviews, I validated my heuristic evaluation findings and identified key design issues that most users were struggling with. To better understand how similar challenges were addressed elsewhere, I conducted a competitive and comparative (C&C) analysis—focusing specifically on feature analysis to see how competitors used their designs and features to solve these problems.
Based on the C&C analysis, I learned how both direct and indirect competitors address the user problems similar to the ones we are trying to solve.
Define phase:
These are the few problems which I identify and prioritize to resolve in this redesign project within the timeline of 6 weeks.
Problem Statement:
People who buy toys and books for kids—usually around birthdays or holidays—often don’t shop regularly and want to make sure they pick something the child will actually enjoy which they are interested age appropriate. They usually rely on trusted websites like Amazon or Walmart, or ask parents for suggestions. But they sometimes feel overwhelmed by too many choices, get frustrated when the product doesn’t match the picture or description, or when shipping takes too long. They need an easier way to find fun, age-appropriate gifts without all the confusion or second-guessing.
User Persona:
Solution Statement:
To support occasional gift-givers in selecting enjoyable, age-appropriate toys and books with confidence, we will design a curated, easy-to-navigate platform that filters options by age, interests, and occasion.
The experience will include trusted reviews, accurate product visuals, and quick shipping details to reduce confusion and second-guessing.
Features like personalized recommendations, caregiver wish lists, and expert picks will simplify the decision-making process, making gift shopping faster, more reliable, and more enjoyable.
Card Sorting:
Conducted the card sorting for 3 users.
Current sitemap:
Design & Deliver
Task Flow:
Based upon the research and analysis, i could be able to design the task flow.
Sketches:
After the task flow, I have designed the sketches upon each task.
Mid Fi Prototype:
Created the mid fi prototype based upon the sketches designed.
Usability Testing Report:
Started working on usability report based on the usability testing interviews.
Style Guide: Color Palette & Typography
Hi Fi Prototype
Scenario: Olive is buying a gift for his nephew Brain who is turning 5 soon. You’ve decided to purchase the marble run toy and would like to add a book President Amanda as a second item. Your goal is to find both items and complete the checkout process and get the confirmation.
