Lizzie Lu Sweets

Request

Designed, developed, and built a small business eCommerce website to help a family friend.

Solution

Lizzie Lu Sweets was co-owned by a close friend of my wife. While he was an amazing Producer (Food Channel, etc.) who knew how to tell compelling stories through video, he didn’t understand what creating a web presence truly entailed. In addition, he admitted he didn’t fully grasp the current trends in modern web design.

When I started talking about “mobile-first,” “responsive design,” and “jQuery,” he went along for the ride—clearly communicating that he had no idea what I was talking about.

• created a Mind Map and walked him through the process of creating a site from cradle to grave
• explained the different “gates” that professional development goes through
• communicated the importance of wireframes to discover and define how the end-user would interact with the site
• produced design motif composites derived from source material that inspired him
• researched current trends (like awesome one-pagers and responsive designs that honor delivery systems) and discussed how they created a more intuitive interface
• introduced him to ticketing systems to define scope and track metrics during development
• built out the site based on wireframes, focusing on functionality first over design
• illustrated how the “front-end” theme simply presented the data-points in the places denoted by the wires
• taught him how to use a modern CMS to extend his marketing reach and grow his business
• conducted several QA sessions to put on the finishing touches and eliminate annoying bugs

This project not only delivered a functional and visually appealing eCommerce site but also equipped my friend with the tools and knowledge to manage and grow his web presence.