Belle Ceramics
Pottery has been my creative outlet since 2018. As a perfectionist, sharing my personal work is vulnerable, but one of my goals for this hobby. This passion project is a way to create value, not just solace, through functional art.
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Role: Research, Branding, UX/UI, Content Creation
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Timeline: May 2024-Present
Problem
While I've created series of collections over the past few years, all of my pottery has been personally used, gifted to friends and family, or is sitting on a shelf. I want to share my work and vision with a larger audience of consumers interested in handmade pottery. It's a daunting task in a saturated market of both small batch and mass produced pottery. This was perfect grounds for a UX project, exploring how to create a brand that stands out through its use of human centered design when the business' time, resources, and products are limited. How do small batch independent artists create value and sell their work?
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Objective:
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To establish an online presence
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To connect consumers with products
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To share and inspire use of functional everyday ceramics
Discover
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First, I gathered information about Belle Ceramics (BC) to understand the brand and the consumers/markets it might serve.
What do you sell? Ceramics- vases, bowls, cups, mugs, plates
What problems do you solve? Functional handmade ware
Key benefits: Unique and simple
What makes it unique? Spin off of traditional forms
Words/phrases: Organic, Juxtaposition (old/new, classic/cutie, soft/edgy)
Personality: Formal, intellectual, dreamy, elegant, whimsical
Slogan: "Useful hua-pings (flower pots) for pretty important people"
Brands: Paloma wool, Deiji Studios, Sixpenny
Colors: Creamy white, brown speckles, muted colors, rutile breaks
Music: Maggie Rogers, Bleachers, Cage the Elephant, Death Cab for Cutie
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Inspiration?
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My favorite moments
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Rosie, rose colored lens, filtered views of joy
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Elegant shapes and earthy colors-mountains, eggs, tomatoes
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Visual inspiration
Next, I explored where other small-medium batch ceramic businesses sell their work
In a survey of where my 10 favorite small batch potters sell their work, I found that 3 had burned out and closed their shops.
Data sourced from Instagram post of percent of sales from a full time ceramicist, with Etsy being the most lucrative.
Lastly, for the discover phase I completed a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of small batch ceramic brands.
SWOT Analysis
Define
To define and guide the project, I identified our user persona, Lady, to represent consumers of handmade ceramics. To better understand this user and their experience, I conducted an empathy and user journey map.
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Empathy map
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Next, I ran a Impact vs. Effort matrix analysis to know what to prioritize and tackle first.
Impact vs Effort Analysis
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Defining the problem space
With so many existing modalities to share handmade work, I needed to define a manageable access to my brand while managing the creation of products for this passion project. I aimed to create a unique experience for Belle Ceramics, not just an online shop on Etsy or Instagram.
Key Opportunities
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Create a Instagram community for people interested in functional ceramic pieces
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Establish a brand aesthetic
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Design a unique e-commerce website
Redefining the problem space by prioritizing value over sales
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I started with two Crazy 8s exercise for the website design, both for the desktop and mobile.
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After my ideation exercise, I considered how the user journey and overall traffic to a personal e-commerce website would be difficult to sustain. With the knowledge that 3 out of 10 of my favorite small batch ceramicists closed down their businesses due to burnout I identified two new problems:
Problem 1
Most new and returning users will have access to Belle Ceramics through Instagram. With busy schedules, target users are unlikely to check e-commerce websites without pre-determination to find products. The story, vision, and purpose is easily lost because Instagram is not customizable.
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Problem 2
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Belle Ceramics is a one woman team with limited time and ability to thoroughly manage two platforms and is unable to hire without an existing business model and income stream. Product drops are infrequent due to the nature of a slow small batch side business.
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Solution: A gallery. By moving the e-commerce, the website becomes the home for the story and vision of Belle Ceramics. Engagement and purchasing can be accomplished on the Instagram, the platform with the widest reach.
How might we share a small batch handmade ceramics collection while inspiring users to enjoy their everyday functional pieces?
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Guiding principles: simple, open, intuitive
Design
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​​Low Fidelity​ Wireframes
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Establishing a visual identity
The colors are inspired by roses to reflect the rose colored lens value of Belle Ceramics. Product photography and presentation is inspired by cool girl brands like Paloma Wool and Deiji Studios and the frames mimic art museums and galleries. I paired a cursive and serif font together for an inspirational typographic feel.
High Fidelity Wireframes
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Deliver
Summary and next steps
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This passion project of creating a user experience for my ceramics line was an intriguing process because I wore two hats, business owner and designer. I had to consider my business and inventory limitations with the purpose of still sharing and selling my work. My original project direction was to create an e-commerce site with a product drop model similar to how other small batch ceramics businesses operate, but with a slower and inconsistent supply chain I had to address a different problem space to balance business and user needs. By moving the e-commerce aspect to Instagram, I was able to design a unique gallery experience that would exclusively connect users to the story, vision, and purpose. Next steps are to build brand loyalty and the e-commerce shop through Instagram.
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More opportunities to design
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UX of purchase (check out experience, email confirmations, unboxing)
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Engaging social media posts and stories
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Improving UI (animations, playing with proportions of images)
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Creating a second purchase experience for those not on Instagram/Creating a product drop experience
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[UPDATE]
While conducting further research into selling on Instagram, some found that clicks don't typically convert to sales on Instagram. With this knowledge, as Belle Ceramics grows, I plan to convert the site to a product drop format, which has been shown to be successful among other small-medium batch ceramic businesses.
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