Rooke Books is an online destination for scarce, decorative, and antiquarian books, including first editions across a wide range of subjects. The project focused on creating a more considered e-commerce experience for browsing a large specialist catalogue while keeping the character and trust expected of a rare-books retailer.

The site needed to make a deep collection of over 20,000 books easier to explore without losing the sense of discovery that comes with antiquarian bookselling. Key journeys included search by author and title, product discovery, browsing new arrivals and popular authors, and moving confidently from an individual book page to checkout.

UI design for a specialist rare-books e-commerce website

Clear search and filtering journeys for author, title, and signed editions

Structured navigation for collections, new arrivals, and popular authors

Product-focused layouts that bring condition, provenance, and book details forward

Shopping cart and account journeys designed to support a confident purchase

A visual system that balances editorial warmth with practical online retail

The final design brings together an editorial, book-led visual direction with a clear e-commerce structure. Search, discovery, and product-detail journeys were designed to help collectors find relevant titles quickly, while the surrounding layout keeps the experience approachable and grounded in Rooke Books’ specialist identity.