All about Pottery Barn’s Website UX and UI
Introduction
Snow. Books/TV. Hot chocolate. These are some things that fascinate me and in turn, give me pleasure. But not all things need to have a fascination to provide pleasure. It is not until you walk into an empty apartment every day, do you wish for good quality furniture.
A good aesthetic setting makes all the difference in the world. Modern times have made us analyze from a shade of a lamp to the size of a furniture to determine our moods.
I love Friends Tv show. Take a look at Joey and Chandler’s lazy boy scenario. The Lazy boy recliners are all they needed to change their life!
Furniture retail has drastically improved in the last few years. It isn’t just about a piece of wood anymore. It includes lighting, design, durability and of course like all other industries it has now expanded into the digital world.
Every search in the digital world, begins with…
Google, of course!
A simple google search leads to multiple search results that are recognized by SEO analytics and AdWords. I am going to focus on one such popular brand website in particular: Pottery Barn.
Pottery Barn is an upscale American store chain and an E-commerce company with retail stores. It started as a pottery business and converted into a furniture store. It has grown with the world since 1949.
We will be focusing on Pottery Barn’s digital journey today...
Back up with the fancy names, let me explain.
UI- is the easier version of interacting with computers without the use of codes. I mean, it includes everything that allows human-computer interaction. Dials, buttons, search bars and you name it, to make consumer lives easier to find what they are looking for.
UX- User experience is an updated version of UI. In this sense, it helps users to view and find things faster. It is the art of planning an application’s design so that the interaction leads to a completed purchase in case of E-commerce store. It includes managing the appearance of the device, response time, and content that exists within UI. Examples include Grids, search bars, AI chatbots, pictures, etc.
To give an example, I will walk you through Pottery Barn’s website design in 3 major categories — Aesthetics, Content and Functionality.
Judging a book by its cover — Aesthetics
The first thing we notice is the looks, the aesthetics, and in modern terms “the vibe”. A good brand has a clear, colorful placement that allows the user’s eyes to feel pleased. Managing design orientation across all technology platforms is another way to ensure consistency.
Pottery Barn website does a good job of the above. It greets you with pleasing colorful visuals that catch your attention. Minimalistic text with easy navigation access makes user interaction easier. It includes a search bar, grid layout, and an AI chatbot to better enhance search functionalities.
The next step for any site is to have interactive content that initiates a response.
Content
This is as close as one gets to a sales pitch in the digital world. But unlike the former, it has to be short and adaptable. For the purpose of understanding, I am going to evaluate the content based on accessibility, objectivity, creativity and Feedback.
Accessibility — Pottery Barn website has viewership across the world in various platforms. The website needs to be fast. Even though the website seems to load in a couple of seconds, the performance of the website is on the lower side.
Objectivity — Focus on describing products with creative adjectives is the best way to emotionally draw consumers’ purchase. Pottery barn does well to remind customers of the products’ comfort, durability, and design.
Pottery Barn uses enticing words beyond product focus such as ‘plant a tree’ or situational quotes that match the vibe of the visuals.
Creativity- In terms of content, the website is engaging. It uses almost all the 7 fascinating triggers to help make its point.
However, I would argue, Pottery Barn products aren’t unique. A brand as popular as Pottery Barn doesn’t stand out. It is far too commercialized at this point to be special.
Feedback- Another area I found lacking is product reviews. It fails to promote its products further by not including positive feedback from verified customers. It is always more convincing to read a fellow user’s experience of a product than the company’s own. It also will help bash any negative comments and enable the user to start the purchase.
Enabling the purchase — Functionality
Navigation tables appear vertically across the screen with a categorized section of all the products that the company has to offer. The process is made as seamless as it could be.
However, one could argue, Pottery Barn has too much to offer, and it can get intimidating even to just view the subheadings. Too much information reduces instant gratification, something we have all come to love in recent times.
Search bars and Artificial Intelligence are additions that definitely help defuse such a situation. A functionality I found fascinating was that Pottery Barn has introduced augmented reality as part of their app for IOS that helps users to virtual place Pottery Barn products into a room and save room design ideas.
Though, AI could be used for much more! Pottery Barn could also use AI to reduce delayed responses for post-purchase queries. I believe they haven’t leveraged this advantageously yet.
Q&A, according to me, does very little to diminish the negative feedback of the products available across other social media platforms.
The last but not the least — Final Decision
Not all Brands have everything right. It isn’t possible. Every good brand has positives and negatives. Different consumers can perceive the same brand differently.
I consider myself to be Phoebe from FRIENDS, so maybe it is in me to point out Pottery Barn’s negatives or maybe it is the constant reminder Joanne Tombrakos feeds into my brain that all good marketers must have a little bit of skepticism.
I think all good brands have a downside; it is what we prefer that makes us perceive one brand over the other.
What do you think of Pottery Barn? Do you fellow readers agree with the comments I had? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time..
Best,
Supraja
