Realstone Systems
Web Design & Strategy at AMBR Detroit
Realstone systems manufactures natural stone veneer for luxury homes and businesses. I was the lead product designer on the re-design of their e-commerce website in 2019.
Strategy & Research
Realstone Systems are leaders in the natural stone industry, however their website had fallen well behind their competition. Our goal was to create a modern, responsive, e-commerce website that highlighted the beauty of their products.
User groups:
Home and business owners with a remodeling project
Interior designers and architects
Realstone dealers using the site as a sales tool
We conducted interviews with representatives from each of the three user groups, distributed a survey to several hundred Realstone customers, and conducted a competitive analysis of their competition.
With our goals clarified, I created wireframes and a prototype for all of the new site pages and tools. We iterated through several versions with feedback from key business stakeholders.
Improving the Shopping Experience
A common user pain point was the difficulty finding products on the Realstone site. The first step to addressing this was to take a look at the information architecture. We reorganized the hundreds of products in the Realstone assortment into common sense categories with industry standard terms.
We then gave users multiple ways to explore the product assortment in the navigation; by color family, product category, and material type. We also implemented an advanced visual search that returns products, blog pages and installation information.
Filters & Favorites
The improved taxonomy allows for easier filtering on the product results pages. As filters are selected, options with null results are disabled.
A favorites feature was also added so customers can save products to discuss with their builder.
Enhancing the Product Details Page
Our user interviews revealed that the majority of people coming to the site are looking for images of the product installed in real spaces and product spec information. With that in mind we added a large image carousel to the product page including inspiration images featuring that product.
We also organized the product specs and technical documents for easy access. I designed a printer friendly version of the product page so users can bring the specs into the showroom or save them as a PDF without the Realstone team having to manage content in multiple places.
The product page links to a new calculator tool that will help you determine exactly how much tile to order based on the size of your space and the size of the tile selected.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
We created a Pinterest-style inspiration gallery to let homeowners and designers explore the possibilities of natural stone. With over 5,700+ images of Realstone products shown in beautiful spaces, the inspiration gallery is now the second most visited area of the site.
Results
The new Realstone website is not just for customers, it also serves as an internal tool for their sales team, providing product specs, installation information, and material calculations. By understanding each user group’s needs we were able to provide a modern, responsive site that is easy to use and highlights the beauty of their products.