Lodge Cast Iron

Creating a better shopping experience

Working with an experienced team of developers, designers, and marketers, I was able to create an online shopping experience that is both visually appealing and user friendly.
Description
Lodge Cast Iron is the industry-leader of cast iron cookware. Tombras was asked to re imagine their existing lodgecastiron.com. This included a full redesign (templates, prototypes, WGAC accessible style guide and responsive design library) of their website.

You can view the live site here

Problem:

The Lodge Cast Iron e-commerce site is having difficulty converting visitors into customers. Users also found their online shopping experience odd and outdated and ultimately was affecting their online sales.

Objective:

Design and implement strategies that will effectively convert visitors into customers as well as increase online sales.

After working with UX team and Lodge on a extensive discovery phase to find out what is important to their business, target audience, user needs and the Cast Iron Industry as a whole, we set out to create an easy to use shopping experience for all users. By conducting interviews, and eye-tracking with customers both in-person and through online questionnaires, we uncovered the following key focuses:

1. Understand user needs: desire for more information about Cast Iron, easier shopping experience

2. Create a seamless user experience: account info that was in one place, recipe saves, and purchases

3. Optimize the checkout process: simplify the understanding of what is happening as you shop

4. Provide incentives: provide discounts or deals for shoppers

5. Analyze user data: internal team wanted to understand more about their users

As UX focused on page flows and personas, I began focusing on low fidelity builds with the content team. This helped set forward the needs from the design library that I would began building in Sketch. Through this process UX, content and design would work hand in hand making sure that all items worked cohesively together. In a site this large no man can build alone and it takes a team that works well together understanding each others strengths and weaknesses.

Type explorations for Lodge design library
low fidelity wire-frames were used for testing and library prep

As low fidelity wires were built the UX team and product team were able to conduct research from the low fidelity wire prototypes. With this we were able to test and see what was working and what wasn't. I was able to adjust and work out components based on seeing what areas users were caught up on. One large area for improvement was out navigation. In this process we discovered that we needed to create a side navigation for our shopping experience. This would allow out users to shop with more focus on their needs.

Research shown side navigation was needed

While I was building low fidelity wires with UX, I was also working on the design library with Lodge brand guidance. Once we had seen that the wires were meeting our goals we easily integrated the library into high fidelity pages. Working with a library increased our speed exponentially. We were able to create pages for development with out trying to redesigned and reinvent the wheel. Below are some of the components and pages built using the library that was created.

Mobile shopping/shopping info

The new platform was designed to be both visually appealing and user friendly. I implemented a clean, modern design that conveyed the brand’s commitment to quality and craftsmanship. I also incorporated a number of features to make the e-commerce experience more efficient and enjoyable. These features included an intuitive product search, an easy checkout process, and an enhanced product page that provided customers with more detailed product information. Overall, my work on Lodge Cast Iron’s new e-commerce platform was a great success. The new design was well received by customers and increased sales in 2020 by over 200% from the old site.

Product design, ui design, design direction

Jason Reyna

UX

Sam, Warren M.

Digital Designer
Alex R., Jacob Cain

Content
Sarah B.

Credits
Year
2019-2021
Client
Lodge Cast Itron
Role

Visual Design
Digital Product Design
System Design
Motion/Interaction Design
UI Design
Branding

Images
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