My matcha journey began when I was on vacation last year and wanted to try several coffee shop daily. When I came home, I found myself craving coffee every day-- but I didn’t want to rely on caffeine everyday. Then, I discovered matcha to be a great alternative and with fell in love the rituals and benefits.

So, when YouTuber Ashley Alexander (urmomAshley) came out with Nami, I had to follow her journey. She was building Nami publicly by going to Japan's matcha factories to try making the powder herself. She also had a community to help her make decisions like the color of the tins, color scheme, etc. I enjoyed watching her process a lot. However, I felt like her website didn't have the same being a part of her community feeling. So, after reading some responses/feedback online, I decided I would redesign some things on the website to bring a warm feeling.

Nami Matcha's first-time buyers felt overwhelmed with different product names, a lack of educational guidance, and a website that didn’t reflect the brand’s warm, mindful tone seen on social media. This disconnect created confusion and reduced trust at critical points in a user journey.

Since Nami’s customers are mostly from Instagram, putting new items on the front page of the homepage can streamline checkout. Streamlining the access would help customers who came to the site with a purpose, finish what they came for as quickly as possible.

Nami Matcha's product page seems overwhelming with large photos and small descriptions of the items could be confusing because there is too much going on. By minimizing the size, people can see which products they're looking for and the different products Nami offers.

Guidance throughout the website could offer users more knowledge about the different types of matcha Nami offers. With breadcrumbs, users would know which page they could go back to or discover other products if they didn't want to click back.

In addition, adding a 'recipes to try' tab, users can see what kind of drinks they could try at home with their new product, convincing users that they should get this tin.

Nami Matcha is great at community building already because of Ashley Alexander's following. However, adding that sense of community back to the website could future proof her matcha when she won't be posting on social media anymore.

Adding an 'About' tab to the menu bar instead of the footer can bring a face to the product. Adding a 'Recipes' tab to the menu bar could bring users to visit the site for more information and ideas instead of only shopping.

If I had the data, I'd test if the retention rate increased and how many successful checkouts were from the homepage. I would also see if users found that adding the 'recipes to try' helps users decide which tin of matcha to try first. Lastly, I'd test if users could feel like if Ashley built the site herself with the consistent branding and tone like the Matcha mob newsletters, Nami's Instagram, and her own Instagram page.

If I were to increase users, I’d make sure the mobile app is user friendly. I also would like to make sure it is aligned with Nami’s branding.

Ashley did mentioned that she would want to open her own Nami cafe one day and I think if it is like the website: have a shop in the cafe, delicious drinks made by the recipes found on the website, it would enhance the brand’s familiarity to a real life experience.