DanialYousefi.com
Luminate Labs is an ecommerce business that provides premium interior lights handpicked for various environments such as offices, livings rooms, and bedrooms. Luminate Labs is built using Shopify and designed to come across as a premium brand.
The objective of Luminate Labs was to design and create an online ecommerce brand that is a one stop shop for all lights required for a home. As an online shop, we wanted to create an easy to use website that feels appealing and fast thereby encouraging users to explore various products regardless of their specific needs.
In addition to the lighting products offered, we wanted to incorporate information about the importance of natural light tones in interior lighting throughout the website. This would require strategic addition of information in between the shopping experience to give interested users access to our information about interior lighting solutions.
There were various challenges with this project both conceptually and technologically.
Conceptually, it was challenging to form a brand identity around a selection of lighting products because there are thousands of lights to choose from. It took an effort of filtering and monitoring hundreds of lights to choose a select few that fit in light with Luminate Lab's brand philosophy and vision.
Technologically, it was challenging to develop Luminate Labs on Shopify due to limitations with the Shopify builder. Having to navigate around a pre exiting theme and making it match our designs took a steep learning curve to achieve. In addition, collaborating with other team members to set up inventory management and shipping was challenging.
Navigating through multiple products required adequate product categorizations. We wanted to create a browsing system that was simple to use and understand while also being expandable in the future when the store grows from 20-30 products to 200-300 products.
Product categorization had to be simple and understandable. Our solution was to create 3 product categories:
- Compact
- Standing Lamps
- Ceiling and Walls
To promote users to browse around Luminate Labs, we had to make sure the website was developed with minimal clutter and with the right image formats to increase loading times between pages.
The branding for Luminate Labs is based around the simple logo that encapsulates the product selection offered. The outer inclosure of a lightbulb communicates the idea of lights.
Most of the lights sold at Luminate Labs are thin and sleek LED lights which are shown throughtThe internal strokes within the lightbulb.
Below are some of the screens designed to communicate the message behind the brand in a bold and confident way.
Creating LuxuryLookout was a great experience for me as a designer. The key takeaway for me was putting myself in the shoes of a user of this service and making sure I am designing for them rather than myself. Instinctively, I wanted to fill this website with heavy motion and animations. Upon trying this, I quickly realized that doing this would take away from the primary focus of this website. This allowed me to change the creative direction of LuxuryLookout and go back to the drawing boards to figure out what makes an effective real estate website.