Nothing Bundt Cakes is in a state of transition. Not only were they bringing their eCommerce experience more in line with what today's users are accustomed to, but they were also refreshing their brand. We had to balance their desire for new aesthetics and the updated need in eCommerce.
Much of the user research that was done for this project was by a separate firm but it was my responsibility to synthesize this user research to validate the personas and user journey that were developed and make recommendations for additional touchpoints or necessary features.
The additional research I did also examined the future site's capabilities to include video, geolocation, personalization, Build-a-Bundt customization configurator, and bulk ordering to address the needs of both B2C and B2B audiences. We compared competitors to ensure that the new user experience would promote loyalty, address cart abandonment, and overall brand awareness among prospective and current customers.
We reviewed Tiff's Treat's user flow for starting a single recipient order and compared how we could optimize Nothing Bundt Cakes' own existing ordering process. When a user begins an online order we found that across both brands a the burden of choosing their ordering criteria fulfillment date and time before a user in able to even see the products available.
We also looked at capabilities on the Milk Bar website, there were some marked differences in the fulfillment capabilities compared with Nothing Bundt Cakes, however we wanted to see if there was a way to balance the "fresher" more millennial brand and the capabilities to see the products and their costs front and center.
From the user research from by the prior agency there were three personas to account for their B2C needs and one persona for their B2B needs. We found that these three personas encapsulated all the business goals set in place for the new website experience and branding.
The Pensive Planner persona and opportunities outlined by the user researchers drove us to branch out UX analyses to eCommerce experiences that did not necessarily align one to one with that of bakery competitors, such as Amazon, Lowe's or The Home Depot.
The Spontaneous Snacker inspired our recognition that many buyers stumbled upon or heard about the brand by word of mouth and requiring the user lift of choosing fulfillment, delivery/pickup information before a customer can see the available products really limited the access to the brand for such a laid back consumer.
The B2B Corporate Gifter was a user story that we used to inspire our shaping of the corporate accounts, many of the needs that a B2B gifter would have also aligned with what a B2C gift may have with the need to send multiple products especially around holidays. Most of the personas outlined wanted a self-service opportunity as it related to their order, immediate responsiveness and straight forward accommodations.
I worked very closely with the internal business team as well as the development team to suggest features and solutions that served to make the eCommerce experience simpler and more in line with the experience that was seen on direct competitors sites and other Best-In-Class experiences I analyzed. We looked at the Porsche Car Configurator and the Lowe's collections experiences for most immediate functionality inspiration for the product listing and product detail pages. Items like a sticky cart or "start order" buttons were seen as key features that many consumers see, especially on mobile devices, as helpful when navigating personalized items.
Based on the complexity of the customization process we wanted to determine all the error states and validation points needed during a user flow for their "Build - A - Bundt" configurator and also show where the persistent add to cart or check out would provide the most value to users' needs. We also set the parameter for ourselves that we wanted to follow industry standard and build functionality with mobile devices in mind.
Additionally as we were building the wireframes and considering the design system, ADA compliance and web accessibility were at the top of our mind. The Nothing Bundt Cakes team did not explicit set that as a business goal but as we moved through this process, I worked closely with my team to ensure that whatever functionality we considered would be accessible.
Above is an example of the persistent checkout/cart section, the desktop & mobile view of the fully customizable "Build - A - Bundt" product page on mobile as well as an expanded view of customized selections.
The above video is a rough prototype video that combined the functionality we liked from Lowe's and Porche but includes the "Build - A - Bundt" real time updating that intrigued the Nothing Bundt Cakes team.
I worked in more of the assisting sense with developing the visual aesthetics for Nothing Bundt Cakes. The most important feedback and direction we did receive from their team is that they wanted to be vibrant and fresh, we wanted to make sure that vibrancy aligned closely to ADA specifications.
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We experienced many iterations of what the Nothing Bundt Cakes team wanted aesthetically from the project. Initially we were expected to revitalize their existing branding colors, typography and photography.
But based on the finding presented to them, the scope of our creative freedom was widened. We built upon their brand vision with our own suggestions that aligned with their brand voice. We took a lot of color inspirations from vibrant millennial influencer Color Me Courtney and their own instagram feed. We married their legacy photography with a new stylistic direction.
We ended up aesthetically creating a visual language that marked celebration, many pages featured allusions to confetti, which followed Nothing Bundt Cake's brand motto, "Bring the Joy". When this project paused we were in the process of developing more iconography to add design whimsy that would marry the concept of a modern and fun brand experience. Below is a progression of that shift from strict adherence to their brand colors to further experimentation with the colors that Nothing Bundt Cakes was using in their social posts.
The growth to expand and push the bounds of what Nothing Bundt Cakes' brand allowed worked to push the experience that I feel would be memorable and beneficial to bringing the brand into a Millennial and Gen Z audience.
Unfortunately, this project has not reached production yet. The features and priority of the wireframes and larger eCommerce site were only fully developed to the Phase 1 roll out. In the next phases a lot more of the items like, loyal programs or gift card products will be featured then most likely.
