Web Design
01
Visual Theme + Layout
02
Prototyping
03
Conclusion + Takeaways
Ethiholics combines a clean and modern theme, primarily using soothing greenish-blue and blue tones, paired with white and black text for clarity. This color palette establishes a sense of trust and professionalism, aligning with the ethical focus of the platform.
The landing page opens with a large graphic and text, encouraging users to "Explore Stores." Beneath this, a rotating slider features the "Top Stores of the Week," highlighting businesses with the highest ratings.
As users scroll further down the landing page, they are introduced to key features of Ethiholics. This includes the ability to write reviews and explore stores based on one's own moral values. The footer contains essential links, including contact details, social media handles, and other helpful information, ensuring everything is within easy reach.
Clicking the "Explore Stores" button takes users to a comprehensive search page, allowing them to search for stores or apply filters based on ethical ratings, customer satisfaction, and other factors. Each store page showcases a high-quality image, overall ratings, and detailed breakdowns of key categories such as ethical practices, customer satisfaction, and employee treatment. Users can scroll through these ratings and read descriptions explaining each category's score.
To further enhance user engagement, each store page offers a review button. This leads to a dedicated review page where users can rate stores based on various categories. The reviewing system is simple yet effective, encouraging users to contribute their opinions and insights, fostering a strong, ethical-minded community.
The prototyping phase was a critical part of the Ethiholics project, accounting for the majority of the design process. This stage involved experimenting with different layouts, visual elements, and user flows to ensure the platform was both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. A lot of time was spent selecting the right images, color schemes, and fonts to create an engaging user experience.
Every aspect of the design, from the placement of buttons to the overall structure of the store pages, was iterated upon multiple times. Balancing functionality with visual appeal was key, as the goal was to create a platform that users would find engaging without being overwhelming. Over time, the design began to take shape, blending the greenish-blue and blue tones with clean layouts and intuitive navigation, ensuring that everything felt cohesive and user-friendly.
Ethiholics was one of my very first website design projects, and it provided invaluable lessons in the use of colors, fonts, and creating an intuitive layout. Throughout the process, I gained a deeper understanding of how important it is to balance aesthetics with usability. One key takeaway is that I would have chosen a color palette with more contrast, as the similar tones I selected sometimes blended into one another, reducing clarity.
Additionally, if I were to redo the project, I would place more emphasis on the wireframing and research phases. Now that I understand the significance of these steps, I see how they form the foundation of an effective design. Moving forward, I hope to bring Ethiholics to life using a website builder like Framer, which will allow me to integrate real functionality and improve overall usability, turning it from a design concept into a fully operational platform.
Thanks for reading!
