THE PROJECT

An unsolicited redesign of an icelandic company’s website. The company, Fylgifiskar, is a well known delicatessen and a lunch restaurant in Reykjavik. This is a unique company with a strong brand and was the first of it’s kind in Iceland, when it opened, 20 years ago. The store’s founder and owner was the first woman to break into this masculin industry of fish mongers in Iceland, at only 29 years of age. This is my absolute favorite delicatessen in Iceland and I think the company could benefit from an UX overhaul of it’s website.

THE PROBLEM

Fylgifiskar is one of the strongest delicatessen brands in Iceland, and has been a pioneer in the seafood section for 20 years. The company does already have a website, but it does not accurately reflect the brand, it’s purpose and the value it creates for its customers. The website user experience is confusing and there is no unified structure.

The current website is created in Squarespace by the company’s owner. I was able to get the analytics and it shows high Bounce Rates that indicate that the site (or specific pages on the site) has issues with content, user experience, page layout or copywriting.

THE GOAL

The goal is to turn an underperforming website into a website that can actually boost credibility and client acquisition. The redesign will empower users with adequate information, and facilitate effective core user journeys, leading to increased online orders.

THE PROCESS

USABILITY AUDIT

I needed to understand what was & wasn’t working with the current website and how the users would want to use it.

I started out by walking through the product with stakeholders and ask specific questions about context of use, target audience, and implementation constraints. It was important to me that the usability audit wouldn’t have a “tell me everything I did wrong” perspective but that we would collaboratively decide how to implement best practices in a way that works best for the company.

After the walkthrough I used Nielsen and Norman’s Ten Usability Heuristics as well as other proven usability guidelines, the stakeholder’s product goals, and dove head first into the website and identified some areas for improvement.

Areas for improvement on the Homepage:

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

The competition

I conducted a competitive UX analyses on 4 websites of direct and indirect competitors. I chose to look at one local icelandic fish store, one meat delicatessen and two meal kit subscription companies.

Based on key learnings from the analysis I recommended applying a few observations to the Fylgifiskar website.

USER RESEARCH

The company’s primary target user are families who are looking for quality healthy food.

I conducted interviews with five current customers. I asked them questions to understand their needs and possible frustrations when buying food from Fylgifiskar. Based on the interviews I organized my data through affinity mapping. The trends in my affinity map and the user journey map revealed a few pain points I decided to focus on in my designs.

But the user interviews didn’t just reveil pain points, it also revealed what the existing customers like about the company. I wanted to emphasize the positive points and integrate in the redesign.

DESIGN

Before heading off to wireframes I created a Sitemap of the existing website to gain full overview.

I discovered where I could trim off unnecessary pages, and keep what’s important and created a new, simpler and more user friendly sitemap.

Once my goals were defined, I planned the visual design of the website using sketches and digital wireframes. It was important to me that the website maintained a simple and friendly tone.

TESTING + IMPROVEMENTS

I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.

DESIGN DECICIONS

I decided to devide the original homepage into 3 new pages and move other content to “About us” and “News” pages to minimize horizontal scrolling and to create a better browsing experience.

THE FINAL SCREENS

Thank you for reading!