Revamp for a retail storefront’s e-commerce site
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.
Imports from Marrakesh is an independent Moroccan bazaar in the heart of New York City specializing in handcrafted tiles, Berber rugs, home decor, and clothing. Founded in 1999, IFM brings Morocco’s traditional craftsmanship to design lovers through its main storefront in Manhattan’s famed Chelsea Market with another in nearby Industry City, Brooklyn.
- Role:
- UX/UI Designer + UX Researcher
- Duration:
- 4 weeks
- Tools:
- Figma, Notion, Zoom, Voice Memos. (*AI used in certain instances to assist in synthesizing research material.)
- Methods:
- Competitive + Comparative Analysis, User Research, Affinity Mapping, User Interviews, Problem Statement, Feature Prioritization, User Persona, Journey Mapping, User Flow, Sitemap, Sketching, Low-fi/Mid-fi/Hi-fi Prototyping, Usability Testing.
The Challenge
I noticed a clear gap between the warmth of the in-person store experience and its lackluster digital presence. The current site doesn’t convey what’s for sale above the fold, and navigation and checkout are unintuitive, peppered with many broken links. Online shoppers need a digital storefront that reflects the quality and warmth of IFM’s storefront, making it easy to browse, trust, and confidently purchase decor for their home.
Improving IFM’s Value Proposition
I anchored the redesign around one guiding principle: keeping the STORE and STORY top of mind. 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
From a business perspective, this redesign is designed to drive increased sales by turning in-person customers into online buyers, and online customers into in-person visitors.
The Research
Research focused on understanding IFM’s brand identity and evaluating the existing site’s user experience, from the homepage and navigation through to the product pages and checkout flow.
IFM has become a leading producer for design lovers across the globe, translating into a superb in-person experience built on trust, credibility, clarity, and functionality. But nowhere does this feeling exist on their current site to allow the user to understand the importance of the store’s heritage.
A First-glance Audit
Top takeaways from the existing site
- Fails to visually communicate that there are products for sale
- Hardly any text above the fold; visitors must hover over images just to learn what they're looking at
- Product listings show non-uniform photos with no names, prices, or descriptors
- Pages like ‘Contact’ have excessive negative space and unrelated imagery
Three research methodologies were used for this design sprint:
- 01
Usability Heuristic Evaluation
- 02
Competitive / Comparative Matrix + Feature Inventory
- 03
User Interviews + Information Architecture
The insights and design features lie in the convergence of these methodologies.
1) Usability Heuristic Evaluation
How IFM’s current experience holds up against UX usability standards
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
How IFM’s site stacks up against a range of e-commerce decor retailers
To understand where IFM sits in the market, I mapped out a competitive and comparative matrix across three tiers of e-commerce decor retailers:
- Direct competitors selling similar Moroccan and handcrafted goods
- Indirect competitors operating in the broader home decor space
- Comparators with a similar artisan-driven, niche positioning
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
2B) Competitive / Comparative Feature Inventory
Assessing what IFM’s current site offers versus what users actually need
Each site was evaluated across 29 features in seven categories, revealing that IFM was missing standard functionality its direct competitors already offer — from wishlists and breadcrumbs to a trade program and rental/event services visibility. These gaps became the foundation for prioritizing what to introduce in the redesign.
| 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
Conducting user research to reshape the site’s navigation for easier browsing
I first interviewed five participants about their first impressions of IFM’s existing site. Their reactions were insightful and made the core problem immediately clear. Below are three standout quotes taken from the interviews:
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
After synthesizing the card sorts, I distilled the findings into a revised sitemap for the prototype that restructured the main navigation to reflect how users actually think about the products. This was a major part of guiding the rest of the design process.
Target Audience
Understanding the User
Serene R.
38; San Diego, CA — “The Amateur Decorator”
With high taste and a low budget, Serene enjoys interior decorating in her spare time. Her aesthetic is comfortable boho-chic with the occasional pop of color. She can visualize a room’s outcome but needs a little help along the way. She loves her favorite store when it comes to looking for decor products.
How might we help Serene…
With the site’s navigation structure defined, I mapped out a user flow that follows Serene who wants to purchase a Moroccan pouf for her living room, to be delivered to her home in San Diego.
The Design
Testing the 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.
Visual Identity
Color Palette
Three iterations were tested, but the final palette below was used in the hi-fi prototype and was verified against WCAG accessibility standards.
Approved Contrast Checker Combos
- Eggshell + Claret
- Eggshell + Penn Blue
- Ash Gray + Claret
- Ash Gray + Penn Blue
Color Breakdown for Site
- Eggshell: Backgrounds
- Ash gray: Frames / Buttons / Logo
- Claret: Logo + Navigation
- Penn Blue: Body Copy
Logo
After a first pass of a redesign keeping some of the original digital typeface, I drew inspiration from the store’s actual in-person signage photographed during a site visit for a second pass. I preserved these stylized letters while cleaning them up for digital legibility (created manually, without AI).
Typography
In this typeface pairing for the site, “Instrument” honors the elevated aesthetic of 1990s–2000s NYC design culture — the era of IFM’s founding — while “Fustat” brings a modern edge that echoes the logo’s “Imports from”.
Instrument Serif (Body copy)
Welcome to
Imports from Marrakesh
at Chelsea Market
Fustat (Header and Navigation)
Moroccan Leather Pouf
$149
The Prototype
Putting it all together
Current Homepage
Proposed Homepage
Added Elements After the Sprint: “Style Ideas” Section
To support users browsing without a specific item in mind, I added a “Style Ideas” section — rotating seasonal inspiration surfacing non-obvious use cases for the catalog. It lives separately from the primary navigation so it doesn’t compete with the core sitemap, acting instead as a lightweight on-ramp into the catalog. Future usability testing and Hotjar sessions will determine its actual impact.
Metrics
The heuristic evaluation identified IFM’s weakest areas of:
Intuitiveness / Valuableness
Trust / Credibility
Clarity / Functionality
Humanized Experience / Delightfulness
Each design decision directly addresses these gaps; a second round of usability testing would validate these projected outcomes against real post-launch results.
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 in person — its artisans, craft, and 25 years of heritage — and carry that into every digital touchpoint.