Project Brief

Wood Fountain Pens specializes in selling handmade fountain pens. Wood Founain Pens is a company that specializes in fountain pens with bodies made completely from wood. Wood Fountain Pens needed an ecommerce store along with a logo design and a visual identity for their brand.

User Research

Why are some people into fountain pens? Where do they buy their pens, and how do they decide on which pen they’re going tto buy? In order to learn more about peoples’ shoppings habits and preferences, I conducted a Typeform survey along with 1:1 interviews with a total of 67 participants, all of whom were fountain pen enthusiasts. The pain points I discovered are as follows:

Deciding What to Read Next is Difficult

Finding interesting books can feel overwhelming as there are countless books to choose from, and so many different ways to discover new books.

Categorizing Books Is Time-Consuming

Everyone organizes their books differently, and many who do so feel that categorizing books takes up too much of their time and effort.

Lack of Details Makes Choosing a Pen Tricky

Sometimes when shopping for foutain pens online, there might not be a lack detailed product photos, size comparisons, or info on product specs, which can make finding the right pen frustrating and time-consuming.

Bad Customer Support is Frustrating

Shopping for fountain pens can be expensive (some of the high-end pens are thousands of dollars)! Bad customer service & a lack of support leaves shoppers feeling unhappy, unvalued, and like they wasted their money.

Research Methods & Takeaways

Once I had gained more insight into the frustrations of shopping for pens online, I also did research to learn more about the fountain pen industry, possible competitors, and Wood Fountain Pen’s users. I created and did a number of things to guide research efforts, including:

What I Learned:

• A dedicated and loyal customer base is essential, especially given the long life of a quality fountain pen and higher prices of the more premium pens. Loyal customers will make repeat purchases and might even act as brand ambassadors.
• A good reputation and quality customer service go hand-in-hand. With top-notch customer service, businesses recoup customer acquisition costs and cultivate a loyal following that refers customers, serves as case studies, and provides testimonials and reviews.
• Having detailed product pages is an important factor when shopping for fountain pens online. Having high quality photos, product specs, nib sizes, and even examples of how the ink looks on paper can be extremely helpful for users to make a decision when shopping. Users sometimes spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on a pen and can find themselves frustrated and even disappointed if they purchase a pen online and it does not meet expectations.

Logo Design

Since Wood Fountain Pens is a company that specializes in hand-made wooden pens, it was important to create a logo that connected the idea of nature and the wooden materials to fountain pens. I thought it would be neat to include leaves or tree-like elements, and combine that with the iconic shape of a nib. I tried a bunch of different ideas and in the end settled on the logo shown below!

Creating an Appealing & Elegant Brand

One of the things people mentioned during the survey and interviews I conducted was that they found poorly designed and hard-to-use websites frustrating. With that in mind, It felt especially important to create branding that was elegant, neutral, and visually appealing. I created this style tile to define how the elements in the site would look:

Wireframes

Once I had a rough idea of the layout, it felt like a good time to start on wireframes to more accurately represent how the site would function. I created the site's essential pages, drawing from my user flows, sitemap, and research, in preparation for user testing. The desktop pages included: Home, Shop (Category Page), Product Detail, Checkout, Order Confirmation, and FAQ.

Visual Design

After creating the style tile, sketching, and wireframing, it was time to incorporate Wood Fountain Pen’s branding to all of the different UI elements.

Summary & Takeaways

One of the most challenging aspects of this project was the research— especially considering that I knew nothing about fountain pens or the fountain pen industry when I first started.
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In this project, I spent a lot more time than I usually do on research (almost 2 weeks!) which gave me the opportunity to dig deep into market research, trends, and customer preferences specific to fountain pens. Being armed with that knowledge helped me better understand the types of information and details users are looking for when browsing for pens online.
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If I had more time, I’d create a new prototype, test my designs again, and continue improving and building features that would make using Wood Fountain Pen’s website easy and intuitive to use.