Aadil Abedi is an artist and creative director who brings a contemporary twist to calligraphy. As part of his independent practice, he runs an online store offering a range of products like original paintings, limited edition prints, clothing, and home decor.

His e-commerce website was originally built on Shopify, but he sought an upgrade to achieve a more customized design and to prominently showcase his brand partnerships with global names like Apple, Disney, and Rastah.

Aadil tapped me to design and develop his new website and Madeleine O. Teh to write the copy. The result is a bespoke website built on Webflow, seamlessly integrated with Shopify using the Smootify third-party tool. This integration bridges the gap between Webflow's design flexibility and Shopify's robust e-commerce capabilities, delivering an enhanced and highly tailored online shopping experience.

Team Members: Amera Ibrahim - Design & Web Development Madeleine O. Teh - Copywriting

Timeline: 3 Months

Before designing the website, we first mapped the customer journey and identified the target audience for Aadil’s website. Based on insights from Aadil, we focused on 3 key audiences:

Individual Buyers - seeking paintings or prints for their home or as gifts

Individual Collectors - commissioning unique artworks tailored to their stories

Brand Partners - collaborating with Aadil to leverage his audience and achieve their business goals.

Based on the personas, here is the customer journey map that caters to the holistic audience and the specific journey of an individual buyer.

Legend:

Green - Individual Buyer

Blue - Individual Collectors

Purple - Brand Partners

Gained a deeper understanding of designing effective online shopping experiences.

Focused on key elements like customer accounts, product details, add-to-cart functionality, and order management.

Successfully bridged Webflow’s design flexibility with Shopify’s e-commerce capabilities using Smootify.

Understood the difference between traditional e-commerce platforms and headless commerce, which separates the front-end (what customers see) from the back-end (where product data is managed) through Smootify.

Learned how third-party tools can enhance functionality and customization in e-commerce projects.

Learned how to craft a tone of voice, selecting "gratitude" as Aadil's brand voice to build connection and focus on artistic, uncomplicated, and specific communication.

Gained clarity on when to use title case versus sentence case for effective e-commerce site design.

It was a rewarding journey that enhanced my technical skills and sharpened my approach to crafting seamless e-commerce experiences.

Special thanks to Aadil Abedi for trusting me with his website redesign and Madeleine O. Teh for being a supportive team member! 💜