Case study

Vespucci Adventures—putting user experience first

Work in progress

Vespucci Adventures—putting user experience first

Case study

Vespucci Adventures—putting user experience first

Case study

Vespucci Adventures—putting user experience first

Long story short

Lond story short

Vespucci Adventures is on a mission to introduce more people to the magic of the great outdoors. Focusing on London-based millennials and backed by the iconic brand Fjällräven, the team curates and plans self-guided mini-expeditions. Crafted by local experts the outings spare you the painful research and make leaving the city—if only for a few hours after work—breezy and joyful.

Vespucci's products are truly fantastic (we're full converts here after trying them out), but the website did not do them justice: it was confusing, cumbersome and far behind the quality of the adventures; it did not convert as it should.

Starting with an in-depth UX audit, we found the user journey was complicated and unclear, users did not understand the offering and adventurers-to-be weren't driven to purchase. We identified the main pain points, optimized the customer experience and re-worked the products categories to bring clarity and joyful simplicity.

Vespucci Adventures is on a mission to introduce more people to the magic of the great outdoors. Focusing on London-based millennials and backed by the iconic brand Fjällräven, the team curates and plans self-guided mini-expeditions. Crafted by local experts the outings spare you the painful research and make leaving the city—if only for a few hours after work—breezy and joyful.

Vespucci's products are truly fantastic (we're full converts here after trying them out), but the website doesn't do them justice: it is confusing, cumbersome and far behind the quality of the adventures; it does not convert as it should.

Starting with an in-depth UX audit, we found the user journey was complicated and unclear, users did not understand the offering and adventurers-to-be weren't driven to purchase. We identified the main pain points and are optimized the customer experience and re-worked the products categories to introduce clarity and joyful simplicity.

The result

The result is a clean, sleek website providing the user with all the key information in an enjoyable and digestible form. The user journey from learning about Vespucci offering to purchase and downloading walks is straightforward and efficient, resulting in a positive experience for new and existing users alike.

The Vespucci Adventures go from strength to strength, successfully building a dedicated tribe of ‘Outsiders’ in the private and corporate world, introducing more and more Londoners to the joys of outdoors.

The result is a clean, sleek website providing the user with all the key information in an enjoyable and digestible form. The user journey from learning about Vespucci offering to purchase and downloading walks is straightforward and efficient, resulting in a positive experience for new and existing users alike.

Since the relaunch the Vespucci Adventures go from strength to strength, successfully building a dedicated tribe of "Outsiders" in the private and corporate world, introducing more and more Londoners to the joys of outdoors.

Client

Vespucci Adventures Ltd

Our role

Website UX audit • Consultancy • User experience (UX) • Information architecture • User journeys mapping • User interface (UI) and visual style • Strategy

Website UX audit + Consultancy / User experience (UX), User interface (UI), Strategy

Website UX audit • Consultancy • User experience (UX) • Information architecture • User journeys mapping • User interface (UI) and visual style • Strategy

Year

2019

→ More on Vespucci at Life Spectator

→ More on the Fjällräven backing

→ Vespucci Adventures Instagram

→ More on Vespucci at Life Spectator

→ More on the Fjällräven backing

→ Vespucci Adventures Instagram

→ More on Vespucci at Life Spectator

→ More on the Fjällräven backing

→ Vespucci Adventures Instagram

‘...I just look through the designs and can't stop smiling! The shop is awesome.’

Alex Middleton

CEO and Founder at Vespucci Adventures| United Kingdom

01—Research

Lean UX audit: where are we?

We started with a usability review of the Vespucci website focusing on the key user flows. We prepared a heuristic evaluation, mapped out user journeys and organised the findings in a succinct actionable booklet. The Vespucci team took over with a clear understanding of where the problematic touchpoints are, what the priorities should be and how to start tackling them systematically.

User journeys

Based on the research, we identified the key pain points and possible solutions. We took our findings to the drawing board and completely redesigned the page flow starting with crude wireframes and moving to a high-fidelity designs prior to the final hand-over.

02—Strategy and UX design

Information architecture

By auditing the content and existing elements of the website we identified the scope and information hierarchy for the new website. Along with the Vespucci team and their customers, we prioritised ruthlessly to maximise the efficiency of the website for the users and the business alike, making the users journey clear and logical.

Taxonomy and naming: introducing clarity

We found out that users did not understand the offering. They were confused about how products differed and what their names meant. People were getting lost on their way to purchase or download a free walk guide as a result.

We suggested a reworked grouping of products and the way they were introduced and described: making their distinction clear and intuitive. We introduced linguistic precision, clear microcopy, brand new naming and a visual language around the categories to simplify everybody's (users and Vespucci team alike!) life and bring understanding and clarity.

03—UI design and visual style

UI and visual style refresh: nothing in the way of getting out of the door

After pinpointing Vespucci customers and making sure we exactly understood who we are working for we focused on a UI and visual style refresh to align with the users. Besides bringing many other benefits, well planned and meticulously executed visual aspects of a website play an important role in signalling the users that this place is indeed for them. And there was some work to be done to achieve a good fit.

We focused on the UI inconsistencies and missing standards, confusing visual hierarchy + the necessary readability and legibility improvements. We anchored all the UI and visual style works in our expertise in usability, accessibility and design principles as well as crucial brand and strategy understanding – making sure we unite functionality and beauty with business objectives.