MEGAMOCHI
UX Design
Client:
Personal
ROLE:
Creator/Designer
DURATION:
3 Weeks
After designing a board game ("Suits & Daggers") that I wanted to launch on Kickstarter, I calculated that I would need at least 4,000 subscribers to reach my funding goal with the assumption of a 10% conversion rate and $25 average pledge. I was impatient to begin selling products instead of waiting to launch a campaign, so I began designing commonly gifted products in a style that would also appeal to the Suits & Daggers target audience. The intent would be to start selling immediately through social media ads and collect customer info upon a sale in order to produce revenue while also growing an email list for the larger product launch. With the creation of these products, I realized I needed a brand-- a parent identity for these products to live under. Thus came the idea to create MEGAMOCHI, and with it, its mascot: Mochi, modeled after my own cat of the same name, who would draw an audience through a weekly web comic illustration.
GOALS
Design a memorable, light-hearted brand that appeals to the "Suits & Daggers" audience, as well as consumers who like collecting and/or gifting quirky, eccentric finds
Create an intuitive site that houses web comics, a store and landing pages for spotlight products
Draw people into products and content through a visually appealing layout and regular, comedic comics about Mochi
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I looked at three brands, two of which are built around web comics that also include an e-commerce component to their site. ModCloth, the only comparison reference that doesn't feature a comic series, was included because of their distinctive retro style and quirky product offerings in their gift collection.
USER PERSONAS
Users referenced in persona-building were largely attracted through a spotlight product-- a board game I created prior to the brand called "Suits and Daggers". By reviewing activity and other followed pages of users subscribed to my board game's Instagram, I created the following persona profiles:
USER JOURNEYS
The user journeys I mapped were specifically to think through how a one-time purchaser could be redirected back into the site through my web comic tactic of content marketing, and vice versa (a comic-reader turned buyer).
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
WIREFRAMES
STYLE GUIDE
COMIC SAMPLE
LIVE SITE
DESIGNS
The length of the design process is always variable, depending on the needs of the customer. In most cases, I strive to iterate off of real user feedback, setting up moderated or unmoderated tasks to test partial prototypes for usability and comprehension.
BEFORE/AFTERS
PROTOTYPES
At the prototyping stage, I'm working closely with devs to ensure that expected behavior isn't only shown through the design, but annotated and documented for their reference as they bring the design to life.