Blendko Web Platform & Customization Engine

While most e-commerce sites limit users to pre-defined products, Blendko empowers customers to co-create items—apparel, home goods, and accessories—tailored to their unique tastes. The challenge was to integrate a powerful customization engine without disrupting an intuitive shopping experience.

Role - Lead UX/UI Designer

Timeline - January – June 2024 (6 Months)

Tools - Figma, Miro, FigJam, Adobe Illustrator, Zeplin

How might we enable rich, co-creation of products without burdening users with complexity or derailing conversions?

I delivered a responsive web platform with an integrated customization engine that drives:

40% uplift in product engagement (views → starts)

15% increase in average order value through upsell prompts

12 pp reduction in cart abandonment after checkout redesign

To ground our design in real needs, I conducted:

10 stakeholder interviews to define goals, technical constraints, and success metrics.

Competitive teardown of Zazzle, Printful and Redbubble to extract best-practice UI patterns.

User survey (n=200) + 15 interviews revealing that 70% of shoppers wanted a live preview during design and 65% valued a quick-start template path.

Smart London “Create from Scratch” flow: Explore → Design → Preview → Purchase

JuanMa Tim “Template Quick-Buy” flow: Browse templates → Minor edits → Add to cart

To create a smooth and intuitive user experience, I structured the Blendko platform around seven primary sections. These were chosen based on user research insights, expected browsing behaviors, and scalability needs for future product and community features.

Home – A dynamic landing page that showcases featured products, top creators, and quick paths into shopping or creating.

Shop – A curated product catalog where users can browse, filter, and buy ready-made or lightly customizable products.

Create – The entry point into the full customization experience. From here, users can start with a blank canvas or use a template to design their product.

News – A blog-style feed with platform updates, creator spotlights, and inspiration for customizations.

Support – Centralized FAQs, live chat access, and troubleshooting resources for shoppers and creators.

About – Tells the story behind Blendko, its mission, and the team. Also includes information on sustainability and sourcing.

Referral – A growth-focused section enabling users to invite friends and earn credits, increasing engagement through incentivized sharing.

To support the desgin, I created a brand guideline kit. It incldes tone of voice, logos, colors, fonts, icons, iages , and product vision.

Designing for Blendko allowed me to deeply explore the intersection of creativity and usability. One of the most rewarding outcomes was seeing the customizer not just used—but loved. During user testing, participants praised how “empowering” it felt to design products from scratch and see updates live in real time. The 40% engagement rate validated this experience and proved our core value proposition. Additionally, the component-based design system enabled a smooth handoff to developers, minimizing back-and-forths and maintaining visual consistency across the product.

Introduce performance benchmarks sooner during the prototyping stage

Prioritize an onboarding tutorial to ease first-time use

Simplify the creative flow further for non-design-savvy users

Optimize Performance: Implement lazy-loading, streamline SVG handling, and compress assets to ensure smoother experiences on all devices.

Launch Community Gallery: Enable users to publish their designs, get inspired by others, and build social engagement around creations.

Contextual In-App Guidance: Integrate tooltips, micro-tutorials, and an onboarding wizard to help both “Creative Emmas” and “Quick-Pick Pauls” navigate the platform confidently.

Expand Accessibility: Audit the platform for color contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility to ensure inclusivity.