Case Study:
Website design and development for a professional photography duo based in Menlo Park, CA.
Our goal:
Create a premium, single-image art gallery for a once in a lifetime photo. My clients were limited on funds so we were looking for a way to create a luxury site at a minimal cost.
Solving a problem: an over-saturation of mediocre photography
Online photography has gotten overwhelming, with a thousand different platforms for hosting, massive galleries with a million photos to choose from, and an overwhelming number of options.
Our Audience: the ethical art lover
We wanted to talk to people who appreciated fine-art photography, our persona was someone who loved the sea, valued unique, one of a kind art, and cared about the ethics of marine preservation.
Scope and constraints: Beauty on a budget
My role was to facilitate choosing the right tools for the job of creating this website, keeping in mind a limited budget for the monthly fees for an eCommerce site, as well as the need for as high-end of a buying experience as possible. We wanted prospective customers to instantly feel connected to our artists.
Process: Work from the end product back to the website
We started our process by looking at the finished product we wanted to deliver to customers. My clients knew they wanted automatic fulfillment and they wanted to use the highest quality materials possible. After some research, we decided on White House Custom Color for fulfillment and printing. Their attention to detail, great customer service, and excellent end-products sealed the deal.
From there we looked at our integration options. I’d initially wanted to go with Shopify, since it’s a great industry-standard ecommerce site that integrates seamlessly with White House Custom Color. However, after setting up a wireframe and going over the high level plan with my clients, the $30/month price point of Shopify felt too high too them, so they asked me to look for cheaper alternatives.
Another integration we found was Pixieset, which offered an integration with White House Custom Color as well, but at a slightly cheaper price point.
Once we landed on Pixieset, I went in and began customizing. Thankfully Pixieset offered great out-of-the-box options for the site that could be customized with a bit of tweaking.
Lessons Learned: Design on a budget can still look expensive
This project was a great learning experience for me in that I discovered how the practical application of web design can be really transferred to any tool imaginable. I was completely new to Pixieset when I started this project but I felt like it offered all the standard tools you’d need to make a beautiful website.
The ideal customer for this project is someone who values something unique and I think this site captures the special quality of this fun project.
