BRAND OVERVIEW
Business Problem
Industry data suggests D2C e-commerce can recover 15–30% of margin typically surrendered to retail intermediaries. For a brand like Eclipse Curtains, an owned purchase path isn't just a UX improvement — it's a business model shift.
* Margin figures are industry estimates, not Eclipse Curtains internal data.
Baymard Audit
Baymard Score of the existing website
-22.2
HOMEPAGE AND NAVIGATION
No product categories or discovery entry points
The homepage had a hero video, a brief brand description, and nothing else. No way for a user to understand what products were available or where to go next. Navigation offered no path into a catalog.
Product Discovery
No catalog, no filters, no browsing experience
There were no product listing pages at all. Customers who arrived looking for curtains had no way to see what was available — let alone compare options, filter by room type, or explore by style.
Product Detail Pages
Product pages didn't exist
No specs. No dimensions. No fabric information. No imagery beyond the hero video. For a high-consideration purchase like window treatments, the absence of product-level content makes conversion impossible.
Cart & Checkout
No transactional infrastructure whatsoever
No cart. No checkout. No payment flow. The site had no mechanism for a user to indicate purchase intent, let alone complete one. Every potential buyer was being handed off to a third-party retailer.
Trust & Reassurance
No signals that build purchase confidence
No payment methods displayed. No return policy visible. No customer reviews. For a first-time buyer, there was nothing to signal that purchasing here was safe and backed by the brand.
Process
PAGE INVENTORY - WHAT NEEDED TO EXIST
Lo-fi wireframes
With the user journey defined, I translated the structure into low-fidelity wireframes to validate layouts, content hierarchy, and interactions before moving into visual design.
Baymard Score of the redesigned website
72.1
Validation
8
Total Participants
97%
Avg. Task Completion Rate
15
Avg. Testing session
What worked?
Users found the navigation intuitive and easy to use.
The overall aesthetic of the website was appreciated for being visually appealing and engaging.
Users liked that they could change the curtain color on the product catalog page and see the transition without going to the product detail page.
The DIY Curtain Design Studio was well-received for its user-friendly interface.
The real-time preview feature was highly appreciated for visualizing the final product.
What didn’t?
In the DIY Curtain Design Studio, the lack of filters for sorting fabrics by best selling, price (high to low), etc., was noted as a drawback.
Users noted that the "Select Color" and "Select Pattern" sections lacked labels and descriptions, leading to confusion and complicating the selection process.
Users noted that the CTA on the payment page was labeled "Save & Continue" rather than "Place Order," creating uncertainty about completing their purchase.
Reflection
01
Define success metrics before designing
I measured impact at the end. I should have set a checkout completion rate target upfront and let it shape prioritization throughout the project, not just audit the results afterward.
02
Design with real copy from the start
The CTA issue showed me that placeholder text can hide small but important problems. In testing, “Save & Continue” was not clear enough. Next time, I would use more realistic copy in wireframes so these issues show up earlier.
OUTCOMES
An informational site that now has something to sell
The project started with a brand site that had no direct purchase path and ended with a fully designed e-commerce experience, from product discovery to order confirmation. The Baymard audit gave the redesign a structured foundation, while user testing helped validate the experience under realistic conditions.