The Clay – pottery studio site + booking flow

The Clay is a Kyiv pottery studio that teaches, makes and sells under one roof. Booking meant sending a message and waiting. The site needed to show the studio, prices and class fit, then let a first-time visitor choose a date and confirm a booking without asking for help.

Role: Product Designer — competitor audit, page structure, visual system, booking prototype and responsive handoff

I found 3 common booking barriers across competing studios: prices hidden behind a form, dates available only by message and no clear picture of what a class involves.

People book a class to make something themselves, not to own a finished pot — the page has to sell the evening, not the object.

Visible prices remove a major booking barrier. Individual, couple, group and team rates sit on the page, so nobody has to ask first.

Nobody books a date they cannot see. Showing the classes running on a chosen day turns browsing into a decision.

I checked what could attract visitors, what the studio could run and what could go wrong. The strongest ideas were upcoming-class listings plus real photos, video and reviews.

Hero → who it is for → why this studio → prices → reviews → gallery → FAQ → book — the questions in the order people ask them. The 12-column grid kept each photo-led section aligned without making the layout rigid.

Minimalism, so nothing competes with the ceramics: clay and terracotta neutrals, generous space around every element, no chrome asking to be looked at.

Libre Franklin keeps interface text clear; Perpetua gives headings a traditional craft feel; Snell Roundhand is used only for script accents.

Buttons, tabs, the calendar, links, the FAQ rows and every form state — sized for large photography and kept quiet, so glaze and texture carry the colour and the chrome does not.

Hero: class listings gave way to studio photography and a single Book class button. The schedule arrived before trust; leading with the studio fixed the emotional sequence.

Palette: cool booking-tool greys gave way to clay-toned warm neutrals. Cool greys read clinical; warm clay tones match the material.

Calls to action: competing buttons above the fold became 1 “Book class” button, with the studio story as the secondary link. Competing buttons split attention on a landing that only needs one first move.

Showing the calendar is what makes the choice concrete. Clicking a date shows the classes scheduled for that day — this is the step that turns browsing into a booking.

I delivered a responsive Figma file with reusable variants for class cards, the date picker, tabs, accordion and form states.

I reviewed the linked prototype against 3 criteria: studio credibility within 10 seconds, clear prices and a complete date-to-confirmation path. This was a design review, not participant testing.