Ethan.Z
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01
Overview
Duration:
3 months
November 27th - March 2nd
Team:
2 Designers, 1Product Manager, 1Copy Writer, 2 Developers
My Role
Verlas is an e-commerce company specializing in diamond jewelry. Upon joining, I discovered that the company was experiencing low revenue. As a UX designer, my contributions include:
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Conducted user research, including interviews and competitive analysis, to identify user pain points impacting Verlas' revenue.
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Led the redesign of the jewelry detail page to optimize the diamond jewelry shopping experience.
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Aligned copywriters and engineers to refine the information architecture of the About Us page and design a new Blog Page to improve SEO.
Tools:
Figma, Adobe Creative Suites, Notion
Problem
Verlas relies solely on its website to generate revenue. However, low traffic and poor conversion indicate gaps in discoverability, user engagement, and overall shopping experience.
Outcome
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User Experience Improvement
The updated product detail page introduced clearer layouts and trust-building design patterns, enabling users to make faster and more confident purchase decisions. -
Growth on Sales
The redesigned product page contributed to an 8% increase in monthly sales in April. -
Enhanced Website Engagement
The launch of Verlas’s new blog page drove a 15% increase in monthly website traffic by attracting and engaging new visitors.
Solution preview
Provide comprehensive product details and diamond education to help users make quicker, informed purchasing decisions.
Share Verlas's story, mission, and values to establish it as a trusted authority in the diamond jewelry shopping industry.
Develop keyword-rich content to enhance the website's SEO and improve its discoverability.
Context
02
About the product
The importance of Verlas’ website
As a rapidly expanding e-commerce company, Verlas relies exclusively on its website as the sole platform for selling its products.
Discovery
The struggles in Verlas’ low revenue
Google Analytics indicates that the website's traffic and conversion rates are below industry standards, contributing to Verlas' low revenue.
Bad website traffic performance
Low conversion rate
User Research
03
Interview
Dive deeper into the current user experiences
To identify the user pain points when shopping at Verlas and understand the barriers to selecting Verlas as their diamond shopping platform, I chose user interviews as my primary research method.
12
Interviewees
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Current customers
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Potential jewelry buyers
8
Questions
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Actions
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Frustrations
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Expectations
3
Outcomes
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User quotes
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Pain points
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Jobs to be done
Research Finding
3 pain points lead to Verlas’ low revenue
I gathered insights from the interviews into an affinity map and highlighted three key pain points to focus on during the design phase.
Insufficient information regarding the specifics of jewelry and education about diamonds.
Verlas can’t be recognized as a reliable diamond jewelry retailer.
Verlas can’t be easily found in a search engine.
Job to be done
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Provide detailed information about jewelry, diamond education, and Verlas' expertise to encourage customers to make purchases on the website.
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Enhance Verlas' SEO to increase website traffic and improve its visibility in search engine results.
To increase Verlas' revenue..
How might we create a website experience that educates customers about diamonds, showcases Verlas’s expertise, and improves search visibility to drive traffic and conversions?
Ideation
04
Product Strategy
Redesign the Verlas website to help customers make informed purchase decisions
To solve 3 key pain points, I communicated with the product manager in the early design stage and listed three product strategies.
Insufficient information about jewelry details and diamond education
Show product details with specifications, and provide supplementary materials on diamond education.
Strategy 1
Verlas can’t be easily found in search engine
Add more diamond and jewelry related keywords on Verlas' website.
Strategy 2
Verlas can’t be recognized as reliable diamond jewelry seller
Share Verlas’ story, mission, and values to build trust and credibility with customers.
Strategy 3
Competitive Analysis
Analyze competitors’ brand storytelling and product education
I aim to integrate diamond education into Verlas' product description pages without causing information overload. To accomplish this, I analyzed how Verlas' competitors present detailed product information to their users and demonstrate their expertise to establish trust and credibility.
Pros:
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Provide diamond education underneath the jewelry details.
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Allow customers to use the AR try-on feature to see how the jewelry looks in reality.
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Display complementary items to encourage customers to explore additional products.
Cons:
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The product customization section contains unnecessary information.
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The absence of jewelry measurements results in a lack of transparency in product details.
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The product price is obscured by excessive text on the product page.
Design Exploration
05
User Flow
Integrate diamond education to erase users’ hesitation of making purchase
I redesigned the user flow to incorporate diamond education within the purchasing decision-making process, streamlining the effort and time users spend understanding the products they are considering.
Concept Validation
How do we showcase comprehensive jewelry details with data while incorporating diamond education?
We included details about the jewelry, such as measurements, materials, and diamond specifications, in the product description. Additionally, we provided educational information about diamonds below the description. In the two concepts below, we adopted concept A. Because it has:
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Better decision-making efficiency.
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Improved visual hierarchy & scannability.
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Reducing distraction at checkout.
Concept A
Concept B
How do we build trust and credibility with users?
We incorporated Verlas' history, expertise, and commitment to quality diamond jewelry into the "About Us" page to strongly emphasize the brand's story and authenticity. We also included external validation to reinforce credibility. In the designs below, we have adopted Concept A for the following reasons:
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Stronger brand storytelling.
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Trust-building through credibility signals.
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A clear and scannable layout.
Concept A
Concept B
How do we improve Verlas SEO?
We improved our SEO by adding more diamond-related keywords to our website. To accomplish this, we created a dedicated blog page for Verlas. We selected concept A for our blog structure because it enhances SEO by generating multiple indexable pages, expanding our keyword coverage, and strengthening Verlas's authority on diamond and jewelry topics.
Concept A
Concept B
Evaluation
06
Usability Testing
Evaluate prototype feasibility and effectiveness
To collect more user feedback on our redesigned website, we recruited six users for two rounds of usability testing. During these sessions, participants were tasked with completing activities such as purchasing a diamond ring, exploring information about Verlas, and searching for Valentine's gift guide. By monitoring task completion times and observing user reactions, I was able to identify the following pros and cons.
Pros:
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Customers gain a deeper understanding of Verlas' products through the detailed specifications.
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Customers acquire basic diamond knowledge, empowering them to make informed purchasing decisions.
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With thorough information about Verlas' history and expertise available, customers can perceive Verlas as a trustworthy seller of diamond jewelry.
Cons:
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It's complicated to browse similar products.
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The About Us page contains excessive text, causing some customers to lose patience.
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The Blog Page features a wide array of blog content, overwhelming customers when selecting articles of interest.
Design iteration
07
Refinement #1
Underscore the versatility and compatibility of Verlas' product
Before: The user can only view the selected product on the product detail page.
After: Add a “You may also like” section to presenting complementary items or related accessories emerged as a potent method to engage customers in exploring more products, potentially boosting the overall order value.
Refinement #2
Build trust with customers without information overload
Before: Our copywriter aimed to describe Verlas in great detail in the initial concept, which resulted in a text-heavy About Page.
After: Enhanced the page with additional images for better visual representation, condensed the content to provide a comprehensive impression of Verlas, and introduced CTA buttons to facilitate deeper user engagement.
Refinement #3
Apply more schema markup to the Blog Page
Before: Users can only filter the blog by the title and category to choose what kind of content they want to learn about.
After: Add estimate reading time and category tag on each blog thumbnail. It can help users make informed decisions about whether to click on the blog or skip it
Final Outcome
06
Project ​Impact
Enhanced conversion rate and SEO performance
According to the usability test, the redesigned product page reduced users' decision-making time by 25%. Following the launch of the new site, the following KPI confirmed that my design solutions were effective and impactful.
15%
Website Traffic
10%
Conversion Rate
8%
Monthly Sales
Takeaways
07
01
Great communication leads to streamlined workflow
During the redesign of the About Page, there was a lack of communication regarding my design concepts with our copywriter. After we had both completed our respective tasks, we realized that the extensive text he had written about Verlas did not align well with the layout I had designed. Had we collaborated and shared our ideas earlier in the process, it could have streamlined our workflow and made the overall process more efficient.
02
Think broad
During this project, I initially focused on the desktop interface only. However, the reality is that the majority of users spend significantly more time browsing on their mobile devices compared to desktops. For my next project, I need to adopt a responsive web design approach from the outset to ensure my creations seamlessly adapt and provide optimal experiences across various screen sizes and devices.