Redesigning Curran's
Information Architecture
Context
Curran’s websites (sisalcarpet.com and curranonline.com) used very different sitemap and product table structures. Both sites were difficult to browse leading to high abandonment rates, particularly on curranonline.com. Curran is a small company focused on catering to design and architecture industries, as well as design-oriented consumers.
My Role
IA design
Tree testing
Competitive research
Taxonomy design
Tools
ahrefs (site audit)
Optimal Workshop
Figma & Figjam
Jira & Confluence
Platforms
Responsive web design
Problems
Through research I uncovered 3 main problems with the browsing experience of the websites:
1. Little to No Filtering
During usability tests, it took customers an average of 6 minutes to find a product on curranonline.com and under 2 minutes on a competitor's site. Most users said they would abandon this process after a few minutes of not finding what they needed.
Example: If someone clicked Deep Seating in the primary nav, they saw a page organized by brand and there was no way to see all deep seating at once or filter on a product attribute.
Opportunity
How might we make Curran's product catalog filterable, consistent, and organized?
Goals
We converted our key problems into UX outcomes:
No Filtering → Filterable
If we do a great job of implementing filters then customers will be able to find the products they need quickly and easily so that they don't leave the site to find a more efficient shopping experience.
Inconsistent → Consistent
If we do a great job of restructuring the sites' navigation and show consistent wayfinding, then customers will be able to browse more freely so that they don't feel lost and abandon the sites out of frustration.
Unorganized → Organized
If we do a great job of organizing the products on the backend and present product variations at the product card level then customers can quickly scan all available options so they don't abandon the sites when they get tired of scrolling through duplicate items.
Example: Because of the tangled site map on curranonline.com the search bar was the customer's best bet for quickly narrowing results. This was not best practice since using search only works if the customer knows exactly what they are looking for.
Site Navigation
The foundation of this major update was to simplify the path to purchase for both sites.
Tree Testing
The new primary navigation went through a few rounds of testing before we landed on the best model for each site.
Final Design
After testing, iterating and conducting competitive research, we landed on a new information architecture and navigation upgrades for both sites including:
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Intuitive and organized hierarchy
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Updated taxonomy
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Robust filtering & sorting
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Improved site map structure
Results
Once these sites are launched the expected results are:
Robust Filtering
Customers will be able to narrow their search and find what they need quickly and easily so that they don't leave the sites for a more efficient shopping experience.
Consistent
As the site grows it will follow a new, organized structure. Customers will easily figure out where they are on the sites and navigate freely so that they don't have to call customer service for help or abandon the sites.
Organized
Customers will easily discover and compare products so that they spend less time wading through duplicate product listings.