K's Couture
"What your mind desires, your body will wear"
K’s Couture is a small business in my hometown specializing in bespoke formalwear. The owner, Kat, is passionate about her work and making sure all her clients feel beautiful on their special day.
Her website, however, does not effectively showcase her abilities. Most of her clients come from referrals, and, if people do find her website, they often have many questions about her services.
I reached out to Kat and offered to redesign her website and solidify her branding to help her reach new clients.
K’s Couture did have a website, but Kat mentioned that she gets almost no clients from the site. If clients do find the site, they call her to inquire about her services. I gathered user opinions on the site, and they generally mentioned that it seemed outdated and lacked the information they were looking for.
Five women, 2 of whom have had a custom-made dress before and 3 who have considered it, explained what would make them choose to get a custom-made dress versus buying a dress from a store.
Kat’s clients mostly consist of young brides needing wedding dress alterations and working professionals seeking custom formalwear for special events. These personas, Sarah and Brittany, summarize these main groups.
Due to time constraints, I decided to design primarily for Sarah, especially since most of the interview participants also mentioned that they would consider getting a custom-made dress for their wedding.
The nature of Kat’s service relies on active collaboration between her and her clients. Together they discuss the design, fit concerns, and take measurements. Most of her clients are unfamiliar with design language and fabric types, so they rely on Kat’s fashion expertise to help them with their decision.
There are not many custom-made clothing boutiques in Southern California, and many women are unfamiliar with the commissioning process and pricing. Kat would like people to understand what she does and highlight the affordability of her service. Potential customers would also like to learn about the process and explore Kat’s work through the website.
I created a task flow and user flow to visualize how Sarah would interact with the site and establish a base for organizing the information before sketching and wireframing.
Kat and I worked together to create a new logo, color palette, and visual identity to convey the passion that she has for her work. Having a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing brand will help establish credibility for the business and further inspire potential customers to seek out the service.
This project taught me the importance of good designer-client communication and gave me a better understanding of how UX goals and business goals align. Working with a small business, I was working with limited resources. Although the research showed that having high-quality imagery was very important, it would be difficult for the owner to hire a photographer to acquire those images. Going forward, I would like to explore other ways to present the information that visitors need while still working with the resources the business has.
I enjoyed working on this project and working with a business that I am personally invested in. Local businesses were hit hard during Covid and it has become even more important for them to have a digital presence to communicate with and reach new clients.