Sift dessert bar

Sift is a family-owned dessert bar with multiple locations in the Bay Area, CA.

Our client approached us with the goal of making their website more appealing to customers so they can attract and keep more people interested in their delicious desserts.

We were given an
8-week timeline to achieve this goal.

MEET THE TEAM

Fernanda - UX designer (that’s me!)

Ìnes - UX designer

Paul - Front end developer

Anna - The user

THE CONTEXT

THE JOURNEY

To thoroughly understand the stages of a Journey, it is essential to consider the individual who is taking it…

So let’s meet Anna who is trying to buy desserts for her birthday party next Sunday

START

Thinking

Action

Feeling

END

THE PROBLEM

The menu lacks clarity, organization, and consistency, making it difficult to navigate and use effectively.

A complicated checkout process can discourage customers from completing their purchase.

HOW THIS IMPACTS THE USER

I have gathered user’s feedback from Google and Yelp regarding the Sift website, and here are some of the key points mentioned by users:

“why the two stars off my original review? Because of the HORRIBLE experience regarding my online order…”
— A. Yelp
“… I don’t think their Menu online is totally comprehensive… I can’t find all the ones we tried.”
— F. Google reviews
“… I’m mad that I wasted my time… due to incorrect information on Sift’s website…”
— G. Yelp

THE SOLUTION

Based on the evidence, discoveries, and user feedback, if we focus on the discover and checkout processes we could improve the appeal of the website by creating a smoother experience when finding products by…

Implement clear navigation menus and search functionality

making it easy for customers to find specific items or browse different categories.

Checkout process with clear and concise steps

will simplify and greatly improve the overall customer experience.

1

2

HOW WE GOT THERE

Based on the information provided by the client I conducted a heuristic analysis to identify the most critical pain points. Here are the key findings from the evaluation:

I discovered that the viability of system status is crucial for the users to successfully complete actions on the website. Lack of guidance and feedback can lead to frustration and may cause users to give up.

1. Viability of system status

By preventing errors, users can avoid frustration and stay focused, leading to a smoother checkout process and an overall easier journey.

5. Error prevention

Helping users to recover its crucial - falling on that can make users not conclude the steps and leave the website with a negative impression.

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

I’ve analyzed Sift's main competitor, and based on the results, I got valuable insights that can guide strategic improvements for Sift.

HOW THIS IMPACTS THE BUSINESS

Milkbar had a 200% increase in sales after updating it’s website*

*You can find the resource here

$3.2 M REVENUE

X

$113.8M REVENUE

So, why is our competitor outperforming us
and how can we get there?

NEXT STEPS

Once we gathered all the research data, our next step was to create a comprehensive site map.

This provided a clear view of the user journey, and highlighted areas for enhancing the “happy path”, creating a strategy to be more competitive and an engaging experience.

WRAPPING UP DESIGNS

Leveraging the collected data, we crafted our initial Mid-fi designs to streamline the design process for greater effectiveness. Here are some key changes we implemented:

Before

After

  1. Add product recommendations for easy cart adding 
  2. Displays price and availability in calendar for a smoth checkout process
  3. Easy to add or delete items making the user happy with the experience

Before

After

  1. Lager thumbnails to invite users visually
  2. Clear categories to place the order leading to a smooth  process
  3. Implement an intuitive drop down menu 
  4. Search bar for quick item searches

FINAL DESIGNS

After feedback and user testing we came out with our final designs

You can find the website here

REFLECTIONS

Am I happy with the solution?

I really like the final designs, and how we unwrapped the process, and with the final designs in place, we aim for at least a 20% increase in sales in the coming months.

Although if additional time and research resources were available, I would prioritize user interviews to accurately identify pain points in the Menu and Checkout process, as well as any other issues that may arise throughout the user journey.

One area for improvement to note is the need for user testing to strengthen the solution.

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