Swadesh Store: From vision to launch
Swadesh Store: From vision to launch

Defining How Luxury Looks, Feels, and Flows Online

Defining How Luxury Looks, Feels, and Flows Online

My Role

UX design purchase flows:

  • Product Detail Page

  • Customisation

  • Bespoke

Art Direction (Imagery)

Timeline

7 months
Oct 2023 - April 2024

Team

2 Design Leads, 3 Product Designers, 2 Visual Designers, 1 Researcher, 3 PMs, 6 Developers

Tools Used

Figma

INTRODUCTION


Swadesh: Where India’s Craft Stories Come Alive


Swadesh is Reliance Foundation's artisan-first retail initiative to preserve and promote India’s arts and crafts.


Flagship stores in Hyderabad and Mumbai, offer handcrafted luxury products - from apparel to furniture, highlighting India’s rich cultural heritage.


Our design team at Jio built its online presence from the ground up, creating a digital identity and e-commerce experience

INTRODUCTION


Swadesh: Where India’s Craft Stories Come Alive


Swadesh is Reliance Foundation's artisan-first retail initiative to preserve and promote India’s arts and crafts.


Flagship stores in Hyderabad and Mumbai, offer handcrafted luxury products - from apparel to furniture, highlighting India’s rich cultural heritage.


Our design team at Jio built its online presence from the ground up, creating a digital identity and e-commerce experience

INTRODUCTION


Swadesh: Where India’s Craft Stories Come Alive


Swadesh is Reliance Foundation's artisan-first retail initiative to preserve and promote India’s arts and crafts.


Flagship stores in Hyderabad and Mumbai, offer handcrafted luxury products - from apparel to furniture, highlighting India’s rich cultural heritage.


Our design team at Jio built its online presence from the ground up, creating a digital identity and e-commerce experience

INTRODUCTION


Swadesh: Where India’s Craft Stories Come Alive


Swadesh is Reliance Foundation's artisan-first retail initiative to preserve and promote India’s arts and crafts.


Flagship stores in Hyderabad and Mumbai, offer handcrafted luxury products - from apparel to furniture, highlighting India’s rich cultural heritage.


Our design team at Jio built its online presence from the ground up, creating a digital identity and e-commerce experience

See It Live

BUSINESS GOAL


Crafting the perception of luxury

USER GOAL


Shop heritage with trust and confidence

EXPERIENCE GOAL

Highlighting crafts, celebrating makers

THE CHALLENGE

One Brand. Many Crafts. Zero Templates.


  • Justifying premium pricing through trust, story, and thoughtful UX.


  • Designing without precedent - no customer base, limited research, and hypothesis-driven personas.


  • Building from zero - defining the brand’s digital voice, structure, and experience within tight time and tech constraints.


  • Unifying a diverse catalogue meant having to craft a consistently scalable experience across vibrant SKUs, regions, and product types under one cohesive brand.

THE CHALLENGE

One Brand. Many Crafts. Zero Templates.


  • Justifying premium pricing through trust, story, and thoughtful UX.


  • Designing without precedent - no customer base, limited research, and hypothesis-driven personas.


  • Building from zero - defining the brand’s digital voice, structure, and experience within tight time and tech constraints.


  • Unifying a diverse catalogue meant having to craft a consistently scalable experience across vibrant SKUs, regions, and product types under one cohesive brand.

THE CHALLENGE

One Brand. Many Crafts. Zero Templates.


  • Justifying premium pricing through trust, story, and thoughtful UX.


  • Designing without precedent - no customer base, limited research, and hypothesis-driven personas.


  • Building from zero - defining the brand’s digital voice, structure, and experience within tight time and tech constraints.


  • Unifying a diverse catalogue meant having to craft a consistently scalable experience across vibrant SKUs, regions, and product types under one cohesive brand.

THE CHALLENGE

One Brand. Many Crafts. Zero Templates.


  • Justifying premium pricing through trust, story, and thoughtful UX.


  • Designing without precedent - no customer base, limited research, and hypothesis-driven personas.


  • Building from zero - defining the brand’s digital voice, structure, and experience within tight time and tech constraints.


  • Unifying a diverse catalogue meant having to craft a consistently scalable experience across vibrant SKUs, regions, and product types under one cohesive brand.

THE RESEARCH

Key insights that shaped the design principles


Competitive research, workshopping with product managers, offline store visit, user interviews with HNI art patrons was utilised to come up with the follwing key design principle

THE RESEARCH

Key insights that shaped the design principles


Competitive research, workshopping with product managers, offline store visit, user interviews with HNI art patrons was utilised to come up with the follwing key design principle

THE RESEARCH

Key insights that shaped the design principles


Competitive research, workshopping with product managers, offline store visit, user interviews with HNI art patrons was utilised to come up with the follwing key design principle

Design for emotional connection

Users seek emotional connection and cultural meaning. Surface the maker’s story, process, and heritage through layered, authentic storytelling that deepens appreciation.

Design for emotional connection

Users seek emotional connection and cultural meaning. Surface the maker’s story, process, and heritage through layered, authentic storytelling that deepens appreciation.

Design for emotional connection

Users seek emotional connection and cultural meaning. Surface the maker’s story, process, and heritage through layered, authentic storytelling that deepens appreciation.

Products take the center stage

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Products take the center stage

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Products take the center stage

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Trust earned through clarity & care

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Trust earned through clarity & care

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Trust earned through clarity & care

Users rely on visual detail to assess value. Design must foreground rich, high-quality imagery and remove distractions - letting the product’s craftsmanship speak for itself

Brainstorming and ideation workshops with design team and product managers

THE PURCHASE VISION


My Role: Bringing the vision to life on the Product Page


Product detail page (PDP) is where customers learn more about a specific handcrafted item. Key actions on the PDP include:


⟡ Explore images

⟡ Reading details

⟡ Choose among variants

⟡ Add to cart

THE PURCHASE VISION


My Role: Bringing the vision to life on the Product Page


Product detail page (PDP) is where customers learn more about a specific handcrafted item. Key actions on the PDP include:


⟡ Explore images

⟡ Reading details

⟡ Choose among variants

⟡ Add to cart

THE PURCHASE VISION


My Role: Bringing the vision to life on the Product Page


Product detail page (PDP) is where customers learn more about a specific handcrafted item. Key actions on the PDP include:


⟡ Explore images

⟡ Reading details

⟡ Choose among variants

⟡ Add to cart

See It Live

WIREFRAMES FOR PDP


Early iterations to align on the structure


→ Product Images, Name, Description

→ Variants and Add to cart

→ Specifications and highlights

→ Details like returns, delivery information, care instructions

→ Craft information

→ Artist details

→ Certifications and tags

→ AR fitment

→ Customisation

→ Recommendations/ Similar items

WIREFRAMES FOR PDP


Early iterations to align on the structure


→ Product Images, Name, Description

→ Variants and Add to cart

→ Specifications and highlights

→ Details like returns, delivery information, care instructions

→ Craft information

→ Artist details

→ Certifications and tags

→ AR fitment

→ Customisation

→ Recommendations/ Similar items

WIREFRAMES FOR PDP


Early iterations to align on the structure


→ Product Images, Name, Description

→ Variants and Add to cart

→ Specifications and highlights

→ Details like returns, delivery information, care instructions

→ Craft information

→ Artist details

→ Certifications and tags

→ AR fitment

→ Customisation

→ Recommendations/ Similar items

WIREFRAMES FOR PDP


Early iterations to align on the structure


→ Product Images, Name, Description

→ Variants and Add to cart

→ Specifications and highlights

→ Details like returns, delivery information, care instructions

→ Craft information

→ Artist details

→ Certifications and tags

→ AR fitment

→ Customisation

→ Recommendations/ Similar items

Design Decisions

Design Decisions


Layout


Layout

LAYOUT

A page flow that serves users and scales for business


Scrolling Behaviour


Scrolling Behaviour

Scrolling Behaviour

SCROLL BEHAVIOUR

Scrolly-telling Meaningfully


Scrolling interactions were defined to create a purposefully guided and immersive experience that felt unique and prioritised product visuals, keeping the information decluttered for a minimal, premium aesthetic

SCROLL BEHAVIOUR

Scrolly-telling Meaningfully


Scrolling interactions were defined to create a purposefully guided and immersive experience that felt unique and prioritised product visuals, keeping the information decluttered for a minimal, premium aesthetic

REFINING THE SCROLL

This introduced a problem


The product details were important but not visible upfront as they were hidden beneath the image scroll:


→ How do we tell a story without telling it all at once?

REFINING THE SCROLL

This introduced a problem


The product details were important but not visible upfront as they were hidden beneath the image scroll:


→ How do we tell a story without telling it all at once?

REFINING THE SCROLL

This introduced a problem


The product details were important but not visible upfront as they were hidden beneath the image scroll:


→ How do we tell a story without telling it all at once?

REFINING THE SCROLL

This introduced a problem


The product details were important but not visible upfront as they were hidden beneath the image scroll:


→ How do we tell a story without telling it all at once?

PROTOTYPE ITERATIONS

Rethinking how detail is revealed - surfacing it early while maintaining a decluttered first fold

Details in a side drawer


✔ Details are most upfront

✔ Can see the image with the information

✔ No change needed in mobile (inconsistent)

✘ Crowded first fold

✘ Limits ability to add more accordion headers in future

Expandable on click


✔ Surfaces details early on

✔ Does not distract from primary product information

✘ Expanded state still looks crowded

✘ Limits ability to add more accordion headers in future


Split Scroll behaviour

When scrolling with the mouse over left panel with images, images would scroll. When scrolling with mouse over right panel with information, page scrolls down


✔ User has more choice in this pattern

✔ Requires minimal change from current design (carousel & scroll behaviour)/ low effort

✔ No change needed in mobile

✘ May not be intuitive to some users (confirmed in testing)

✘ May have a learning curve

✘ Information cannot be read along with image

FINAL SELECTED

Balancing rich detail and simplicity through thoughtfully staged content


Customisation


Customisation

Customisation

CUSTOMISATION

Blue-Sky Beginnings


  • Exploring what could be and designing without limits to imagine what's possible

  • Beginning with open-ended explorations, crafting early prototypes that imagined the future of customisation on Swadesh - unconstrained by tech or inventory logic

  • Served as strategic tools facilitate conversations with PMs and category heads about the vision when there was no playbook or PRD to start with

CUSTOMISATION

Blue-Sky Beginnings


  • Exploring what could be and designing without limits to imagine what's possible

  • Beginning with open-ended explorations, crafting early prototypes that imagined the future of customisation on Swadesh - unconstrained by tech or inventory logic

  • Served as strategic tools facilitate conversations with PMs and category heads about the vision when there was no playbook or PRD to start with

CUSTOMISATION

Blue-Sky Beginnings


  • Exploring what could be and designing without limits to imagine what's possible

  • Beginning with open-ended explorations, crafting early prototypes that imagined the future of customisation on Swadesh - unconstrained by tech or inventory logic

  • Served as strategic tools facilitate conversations with PMs and category heads about the vision when there was no playbook or PRD to start with

CUSTOMISATION

Blue-Sky Beginnings


  • Exploring what could be and designing without limits to imagine what's possible

  • Beginning with open-ended explorations, crafting early prototypes that imagined the future of customisation on Swadesh - unconstrained by tech or inventory logic

  • Served as strategic tools facilitate conversations with PMs and category heads about the vision when there was no playbook or PRD to start with

STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

Collaborated with PMs to define what 'Customisation' might mean for a Swadesh buyer


→ Ultimately, from the business and operations perspective ‘customisation’ is just a variant (colour/ dimension/ style etc.) of a base SKU that is not currently in stock but can be made to order on request by shoppers.

RTS → Ready To Ship; MTO → Made to Order; ATC → Add to Cart; PDP → Product Detail Page

USE CASE 1

Under 3 variable parameters to choose from


The product details were important but not visible upfront as they were hidden beneath the image scroll:


→ How do we tell a story without telling it all at once?

BESPOKE

Craft your own custom piece: Bring your unique vision to life working with the Swadesh design team using Bespoke

SWADESH STORE'S IMPACT

Live and out in the world

SWADESH STORE'S IMPACT

Live and out in the world

LEARNINGS

Key Takeaways


⟡ Luxury is in restraint

⟡ Visuals carry emotion but structure carries confidence

⟡ Constraints can sharpen creativity

LEARNINGS

Key Takeaways


⟡ Luxury is in restraint

⟡ Visuals carry emotion but structure carries confidence

⟡ Constraints can sharpen creativity

LEARNINGS

Key Takeaways


⟡ Luxury is in restraint

⟡ Visuals carry emotion but structure carries confidence

⟡ Constraints can sharpen creativity

Welcome to this cozy corner of the internet ☕️

Call

+1 2065369593

Write

kashvigoel38@gmail.com

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