E-Commerce Site Revamp
Bringing Morocco’s traditional craftsmanship to design lovers in NYC and beyond
Redesigned the digital identity and checkout flow for Imports from Marrakesh, LTD., bridging their brick-and-mortar experience with an elevated online presence helping buyers shop with confidence. (Four-week sprint with subsequent rounds of design.)
The Challenge
For over 25 years, IFM has become known to niche design lovers with a unique in-person experience built on long-standing trust and credibility. But nowhere does this feeling exist on the current site to understand the importance of their heritage and quality of products.
Improving IFM’s Value Proposition
Beyond weaving in IFM’s 25-year heritage, my research surfaced three key goals:
Fully separating the retail site from their sister custom design site
Fully restructuring the sitemap for more intuitive browsing
Fully redesigning checkout without confusion or dead ends
The Research
Top Audit Takeaways
- Fails to visually communicate that there are products for sale, with no text above the fold
- Product listings show non-uniform photos with no names, prices, or descriptors
- Pages like ‘Contact’ have excessive negative space and unrelated imagery
- Navigation and checkout are unintuitive, peppered with many broken links
1) Usability Heuristic Evaluation
A heuristic evaluation against Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics returned a score of 44 out of 150. Nearly every page flagged major or medium problems with the homepage scoring zero on both clarity and delight. The site’s weakest areas, credibility (2/15) and valuable (1/15), directly affect whether a first-time visitor trusts the brand enough to buy.
| Page Scores | Overall | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heuristic | Home | Product Listing | Product Detail | Cart | Checkout | Score |
| Findable | Major Problem (0) | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Minor Problem (2) | Meets Best Practice (3) | 7 |
| Accessible | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Minor Problem (2) | Meets Best Practice (3) | Meets Best Practice (3) | 10 |
| Clear | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Medium Problem (1) | Major Problem (0) | Medium Problem (1) | 2 |
| Communicative | Medium Problem (1) | Major Problem (0) | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Major Problem (0) | 5 |
| Usable | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Meets Best Practice (3) | Major Problem (0) | 6 |
| Credibility | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Minor Problem (2) | Major Problem (0) | 2 |
| Controllable | Medium Problem (1) | Minor Problem (2) | Minor Problem (2) | Minor Problem (2) | Minor Problem (2) | 8 |
| Valuable | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | N/A | Medium Problem (1) | 1 |
| Learnable | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | Medium Problem (1) | N/A | N/A | 3 |
| Delightful | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | Major Problem (0) | N/A | 0 |
| Total Score | 44/150 | |||||
2A) Competitive / Comparative Matrix
This range from high-end boutique to mass-market retail helped identify where IFM’s digital experience falls short and where it has a unique opportunity to stand out.
Direct Competitors
Indirect Competitors
Comparators
Competitive + Comparative Matrix (in ranking order)
Most Usable + Most Delightful
- The Citizenry
- abc carpet & home
- Beni
- Restoration Hardware
- A | Home
- Il Buco Vita
- Sheherazade
Most Usable, Less Delightful
- Pottery Barn
- West Elm
Less Usable, Most Delightful
- Rikumo
- Seret & Sons
Least Usable + Least Delightful
- Moroccan Prestige
- Tazi Designs
- Atlas Weavers
- Imports from Marrakesh
- Maison 140
2B) Competitive / Comparative Feature Inventory
Each site above was evaluated across 29 features in seven categories, revealing that IFM was missing standard functionality its direct competitors already offer.
| Direct Competitors | Indirect Competitors | Comparative (Boutiques) | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Feature | Imports From Marrakesh (NYC) | Moroccan Prestige (FL) | Tazi Designs (CA) | Beni Rugs (NY; Morocco) | Sheherazade Home (NY) | Atlas Weavers (LA / N.Ireland) | Restoration Hardware | Pottery Barn | West Elm | ABC Carpet & Home | Anthropologie Home | The Citizenry | Seret & Sons | Maison 140 | Rikumo | Il Buco Vita |
| ACCOUNT | Account Profile | — | — | — | |||||||||||||
| Two Factor Login | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| SHOPPING | Wishlist | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||
3) User Interviews + Information Architecture
Jenna, 31
Santa Barbara
“I know authentic Moroccan products are usually a little bit more expensive, but because you can't buy certain items, I wouldn't know it was a real store or business.”
Marni, 27
Miami
“I probably wouldn't go on this website again because it doesn't give me dopamine.”
Eric, 45
Miami
“The site lacks the expected luxury feel, doesn't do the products justice, and leaves me confused enough that I'd consider reaching out to understand why I can't make a purchase.”
To understand how users naturally think about IFM’s products, I conducted card sorting sessions with five participants. One key insight: Rebecca assumed “Souk” was the name of IFM’s storefront rather than a product category — a confusion that pointed directly to a major navigation problem on the original site’s home menu (below).
Randomized cards
Rebecca’s categorization
Findings were distilled into a revised sitemap that restructured the main navigation to reflect how users actually think about the products. In tandem, a user persona named Serene was also created to get a better idea of who would be using the site:
The user flow below follows Serene who wants to purchase a Moroccan pouf for her living room, to be delivered to her home.
The Design
Testing the first full lo-fi prototype (flow of purchasing the pouf) with three users revealed several actionable insights:
Sammy, 35
Brooklyn
While Sammy found the purchase flow easy to navigate, his primary feedback focused on polish rather than usability: specifically inconsistent typography that reduced the site's credibility.
Ezra, 48
San Francisco
Ezra initially mistook the large hero images for products rather than category-introduction content. He also emphasized making filters much more visually prominent and including trust-building elements such as return policies, contact information, and store details.
Kyle, 34
Manhattan
While Kyle found the shopping flow intuitive and familiar for a typical e-commerce experience, his primary usability concern was the login flow where he suggested keeping users in the checkout flow they were in either by returning them directly to where they left off or using a login modal to create a smoother purchasing experience.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Prototype Example 1 of 7
Homepage
Leads with what's actually for sale, so a first-time visitor knows within seconds what IFM offers.
Closeout
This redesign set out to keep IFM’s STORE and STORY at the center of every decision. The new sitemap reflects how users actually think about products, checkout removes the friction uncovered through testing, and the retail experience is now clearly separated from IFM’s custom design services. Beyond the structural fixes, the goal was to preserve what makes IFM meaningful: its artisans, craft, and heritage carried into every digital touchpoint. I look forward to future usability testing.