CandyCave

Customer Experience & Design // Frontend Development // Ad Creatives

Point of Contact

Kirsty C.

Timeline

8 Weeks

Website URL

www.candycave.co.uk/

CandyCave, like many sweet businesses want to revolutionise the way people order sweets online. It’s not always as easy as walking to your nearest shop to pick up a bag of your favourite sweets, therefore CandyCave strives to deliver your favourite sweets, directly to your door.

The user experience created a challenge from the beginning, CandyCave’s market research showed that the majority of visitors preferred to pick and mix their own sweets, however this functionality wasn't currently supported. The data I received was paramount to the strategy, as it allowed me to map out a journey that allows visitors to create their own pick ’n’ mix.

I went back to basics and put together a proposed wireframe, this was then prototyped and shared with several friends and family who have purchased from CandyCave’s competitors previously, or who would love to order sweets in the future. Having their opinions helped streamline the build your own user journey and ensure it’s user centered.

CandyCave was targeting local customers within a 10 mile radius when I was first bought into the loop, it soon became apparent that they wanted to go much further afield but felt their current website was limiting their ability to do so.

What I loved

The Challenge

I particularly enjoyed the challenge of the build your own page. Since launching the build your own capability CandyCave has generated 10x their average monthly profits within the first two months. With the majority of visitors favouriting the 1KG and 2KG pick n mix pouches.

It's masmerising seeing the user journey come together and visitors enjoying their experience. Hotjar recordings confirmed that visitors are able to navigate their way through the build successfully without being confused on what to do next.

Competitor Analysis

I compared various online sweet stores to identify their positives and negatives.

As a person with a huge sweet tooth, I approached each competitor websites as though I was purchasing. I went through the various products and proceeded as though I was going to complete the purchase. It was intriguing to see how they meet users needs and expectations.

While trying to overcome the temptation of ordering sweets, I had to stay focused and capitalise on what I thought was their weaknesses. I questioned their design, experience, user journey and myself, why? Taking notes of each positive and negative to help CandyCave become the next best online sweet shop, trying to utilise everything that I can in order to benefit the design I created.

Personas

The information I received from friends and family when I shared the prototype version helped highlight pain points and needs that were previously overlooked. This feedback allowed us to better understand the ideal visitors needs, wants and goals.

User Flows

Now that the user personas are created from the competitor analysis and prototype feedback, I can move on to planning the user journey by mapping out all of the key pages. I love this stage as I find it opens up more questions, such as if I’m on the 1KG pick n mix builder, how can I navigate from here to 2KG swiftly? I like how it brings more depth to the project by thinking past the design.

Wireframes

Before I could begin the wireframe process I needed to summarise all the key information that was found during the competitor analysis and prototype feedback. I then used this information to organise a visual hierarchy that allowed visitors to identify key characteristics e.g. the pick n mix builder.

High Fidelity

Once the basic wireframing was completed and it was clear what each page entailed, it was time to jazz things up a bit to deliver a higher fidelity design.

CandyCave changes are now live on mobile: candycave.co.uk