Kanekta
For this project, our team designed an e-commerce website that offers a curated list of ethically sourced products (ESPs) and educates users on the importance of supporting these products and the artisans that make them.
The client
Kanekta is a start up company that started from the difficulty to find ethically sourced products in today’s market. Currently, ESPs are either extremely hard to find or are out of the price range of Kanekta’s target consumer, which was a millennial female in her early twenties.
Kanekta’s mission is to increase the availability of ethically sourced products (ESPs) in the mainstream market. They plan to do this by acting as the middle-man and facilitating relationships between the producers and the retailers.
The Opportunity
Kanekta wanted achieve two goals with the website:
- E-commerce: the website will be a curated collection of goods where consumers can shop ethically sourced products from around different retailers.
- Education: the website will educate consumers on why they should consider shopping ESPs.
Survey
Our goal was to find what people’s shopping habits were and what people actually knew about what it means for a product to be ethically sourced.
From the 46 responses, we found:
- 95% were desktop shoppers
- The quality and value of the product mattered the most in making a purchase
- There was a range of knowledge levels on what it meant for a product to be ethically sourced. Some had no clue what it meant, some associated it with sustainability and some knew exactly what it meant.
- Within people that shop ethically sourced products, they cared most about where the product was made and why the product was made (what cause it supported).
User Interviews
Our goal for the interview was to find what motivates someone to be a conscious consumer.
We interviewed 8 people that frequently shop ethically sourced products.
We found that:
- Transparency from the brands and businesses they support is important. They supported companies that were clear on what causes they support and how they were supporting it
- They are well informed and knowledgeable on a variety of social issues and prefer not to support fast fashion
- They love sharing reviews and directing people to places where they can ethically shop because they like to champion their beliefs
Competitive Analysis
We looked at 4 major e-commerce sites that sell ethically sourced products and found many similarities.
- Users could leave reviews/comments
- Users could share items on social media
- Users could filter items by impact (For example, if a user wanted to buy products that support products that support vulnerable women, they could filter and look only at products that support women)
- All were very transparent about their business model. They explained why and how they support different causes and some even showed the breakdown of how much profit goes to themselves and the artisans.
- All showcased stories of the people that make their products and where the product comes from.
Persona
Beth is a 23 year marketing student. She frequently shops ethically sourced products and is knowledgeable on sustainable practices.
She wants to purchase ethically sourced products whenever she can and she feels proud that she is improving quality of life and standard of living for people in need.
She frequently shares her ethical purchases with friends and family and loves suggesting where to shop for ethically sourced products.
Sitemap
We wanted to meet both the shop and education goal of Kanekta.
Under the ‘Shop’ page, we included
- Stories of the product
- Reviews of products
Under the ‘Ethical sourcing’ page,
- We defined what ‘ethical sourcing’ meant to clear up misconceptions
- We defined different impacts/causes Kanekta supports
- We included a true-or-false quiz that users can share
Under the ‘Artisans’ page, we included,
- Stories of the artisans
- Supply chains of where the products come from
- A world map to showcase where different products come from
In the process of finalizing the sitemap, we realized we need a landing page that tells a user about what Kanekta is and what it stands for. Because Kanekta is a start up, we wanted the first page to make a lasting impression. How we approached this will be discussed under the ‘Testing & Iteration’ section.
Mood board
We wanted Kanekta to be fun, colorful, and warm and portray awareness, fairness and honesty.
Representing different Impacts
We used iconography to represent the 8 impacts that Kanketa is dedicated to and used them throughout the website.
Since our users care most about where and why the product was made, we made these prominent in the product detail page. In the description, the user can see the story behind the product and the artisan, which is summarized in the “who, where, how” section near the bottom.
After making a purchase, the story is summarized again and users can share this piece on their social media.
We wanted the landing page to show the impact the users will make through their purchase at Kanekta.
Our original idea was to have a slider where users could see their impact over time if they made a purchase through a big chain store or through Kanekta.
As users slide through the years after purchase, they can see the artisan receiving different benefits like medical care, sending children to school while the CEO remains on his private yacht.
Through testing, we found that:
- People made a connection between the CEO and the artisan and thought the CEO was helping out the artisan.
- People didn’t understand how Kanekta fit into the picture
- The linear timeline didn’t make sense with the benefits the artisans were receiving. For example, it doesn’t make sense that at 2 years after the purchase, the artisan receives medical care and at 4 years after the purchase, the artisan’s children go to school.
Based on testing results, we came up with the bracelet idea. The cyclical shape better represents how buying ethically sourced products have a long lasting impact on the artisans. The bracelet also incorporate shopping aspect since it is one of the products sold on the website.
Our persona, Beth is buying a gift for her younger sister’s high school graduation. Since this is an event that will help her sister further herself, Beth wants to buy a product that will help empower women.
Click here to view the project `Kanekta - Final`
Beth buys a gift for her younger sister’s graduation
Summary
Although, I’m happy with how the project turned out, this project was not without its challenges.
All of us had very distinct design styles which meant sometimes we had very different ideas on how a page should look. We resolved this by making decisions based on our research and business goals but there was miscommunication and at times team members felt unheard. This experience really emphasized how important it is to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page.
