Welcome to
Chess Club
Overview
-
Role
UX Designer
Website Designer -
Tools
Figma
Squarespace -
Duration
Dec 2021 – Jan 2023
Product
Chess Club LLC is a business created around the community of chess in Seattle. The e-commerce website includes our chess merchandise, about section, & the landing page with location info & navigation summary.
Strategy
During my 10 month contract position with the Chess Club as the Product Designer & Website Builder, I designed and built the first version of the responsive website. As the sole website designer, I created and evolved the full user experience including visual layout, navigation, information architecture, and retail checkout flow.
The Story
What made this project unique was the wholesome enthusiasm of the design team and community around chess. The welcoming, inclusive atmosphere contradict the usual assumptions of a chess club (often seen as stuffy, old-school or pretentious), and leave room for a growing, innovative group of passionate people.
Taking a volunteer experience and hobby to the next level by building the Chess Club into a business has funded more opportunities for learning, connecting, and thriving.
Understanding
The Goal
The vision behind building the Chess Club website was to create a home base for the business, build a brand, and design our own merchandise to populate the site (designed & illustrated by the Chess Design Team).
On a more specific scale, our goal was to design and maintain an e-commerce website with easy navigation, clear information architecture, and full functionality to order merchandise online.
Chess Club 4 year celebration
The Challenge
Chess Club is a growing business. Users need a simple way to find information about the club such as location & time, order chess club merchandise easily online, and share a community experience.
The Result
I was able to confidently craft the scalable site after working closely with the Design Team to guide the vision for the website. The final result is a fully functional e-commerce experience for passionate chess community members in Seattle, as well as online, to find the business, participate in the game, and make purchases.
About
Pawn Shop
Charter
Designs
Wireframes
These first sketches represent the mobile and desktop experience for the Pawn Shop (Online store).
I focused my design layout on ease of navigation for the user - search capability and an accessible the checkout bag. Highlighting the imagery for the merchandise and demonstrating clear pricing paired with each item was another important aspect to the initial site concept.
The Home screen had a few directions it could go in. I attempted 3 renditions of the mobile layout, which include the same information, playing around with the placement of the elements.
The information needed for the home screen includes a site summary with quick navigation between screens. Primary additions to the main page includes a list of locations, contact information, and social media links.
Location Cards
Adding the location cards gave the website a distinct energy and feel for the brand identity. A bold black and white with dark colors and crisp outlines creates the cohesive look of the Seattle based Chess Club (designed and illustrated by Caitlin Larson, Head of Design).
The Pawn Shop
While brainstorming design ideas for the merchandise page, the name “Pawn shop” occurred to me. After pitching the idea of calling the “Merch” page “Pawn shop,” the team reacted with enthusiastic cheers. The Pawn shop came into fruition.
We wanted to offer t-shirts, hoodies, caps, and various chess themed designs for players to represent their passion for the game, as well as to build a welcoming chess community in Seattle.
Tournaments
The newest addition to the chess club site is the tournament information and registration page. As a growing community, the demand for monthly tournaments became apparent with a definite need for a space with instructions, tournament format, game rules, and guidelines for users.
・Design Team・
Finn Raftery
Chess Club Founder
Caitlin Larson
Head of Design
Karli Rhind
Gabi Osias
Design Fabricator
UX Designer | Web Designer
