Case Studies → Sparrow’s Nest Studio Shopify Site and Web Presence
Building A Succesful Web Presence for a Small Business Startup with Big Ambitions
As the second stage of my work as Lead Designer at Sparrow’s Nest Studio, I used the branding guide I created to implement an e-commerce site. The first step was to select a CMS/website builder that could get us up and running quickly and accomodate the business as we grew. We chose Shopify because in addition to being an industry-standard CMS for online shopping, it also has a robust website builder in the drag-and-drop style similar to Squarespace and Wix.
I began by whiteboarding the directory of pages, how they would be structured, and how they would nest inside the navigation menu. Once I had a plan for the content, our robust branding guide made it easy to create a site that seamlessly complemented the rest of the brand. I did approximately 90% of the content writing and UX writing myself with the other portion being written by the founder.
Path to Performance: Publish, Collect Analytics, Modify, Publish Again
After publishing, we used Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Hubspot, and Shopify Analytics to see how our site performed with our audience and across the web. I conducted a few informal user testing studies, watching real users attempt to navigate the site and find the content they wanted in real time. Users were generally impressed with the design of the site, its professionalism, and how it was able to introduce the Sparrow’s Nest brand and the game of mahjong. Both user testing and analytics indicated users were having issues finding certain pieces of information, such as the hours. More specific pages were added to respond to their needs. Through my research of Google Search trends, I also optimized content and even wrote new content to capture new traffic.
Web Presence: Social Media and Google Business Profile
To reach our audience, we experimented with which channels would be most successful. Our social media presence then focused on Instagram and TikTok to reach audiences nationwide, and EventBrite and Meetup to reach locals in the NYC area. Google Bussiness Profile (and a Google Maps listing) proved to be our most successful presence on a directory.