Gregory Thom - Product Designer

One day as I was leaving work, I started to feel a little homesick. I was thousands of miles away from home and started to think about the Pacific ocean. I decided to check out my local surf shop's website and see what products were in. I entered the URL, but was met with this:

I texted the shop owner, my former boss, and told him that I'd like to create a new website for him. We talked over the phone about what he wanted from this next design. The website should be low-maintenance, embody the shop's heritage and the Central Coast spirit, and showcase a specific selection of products, not all of them.

The shop is currently thriving, the absence of a functioning website wasn’t hurting the business, but it was a missed opportunity to serve their remote customer base.

Research:

How do we create the most effective website for our users served? I knew from my own experience, and from talking to the shop owner, that the main priority was to address the lack of products shown on the current website.

At this point I've:

Conducted primary research by interviewing users and stakeholders.
Conducted a competitive analysis of direct and indirect competitors.
Gathered immersion research from working at the shop for nearly three years of what users habits tend to be.
Browsed the old website, analyzed the information architecture, and made notes of what doesn't work.

I texted the shop owner, my former boss, and told him that I'd like to create a new website for him. We talked over the phone about what he wanted from this next design. The website should be low-maintenance, embody the shop's heritage and the Central Coast spirit, and showcase a specific selection of products, not all of them.

The shop is currently thriving, the absence of a functioning website wasn’t hurting the business, but it was a missed opportunity to serve their remote customer base.

Research:

How do we create the most effective website for our users served? I knew from my own experience, and from talking to the shop owner, that the main priority was to address the lack of products shown on the current website.

At this point I've:

Conducted primary research by interviewing users and stakeholders.
Conducted a competitive analysis of direct and indirect competitors.
Gathered immersion research from working at the shop for nearly three years of what users habits tend to be.
Browsed the old website, analyzed the information architecture, and made notes of what doesn't work.

I texted the shop owner, my former boss, and told him that I'd like to create a new website for him. We talked over the phone about what he wanted from this next design. The website should be low-maintenance, embody the shop's heritage and the Central Coast spirit, and showcase a specific selection of products, not all of them.

The shop is currently thriving, the absence of a functioning website wasn’t hurting the business, but it was a missed opportunity to serve their remote customer base.

Research:

How do we create the most effective website for our users served? I knew from my own experience, and from talking to the shop owner, that the main priority was to address the lack of products shown on the current website.

At this point I've:

Conducted primary research by interviewing users and stakeholders.
Conducted a competitive analysis of direct and indirect competitors.
Gathered immersion research from working at the shop for nearly three years of what users habits tend to be.
Browsed the old website, analyzed the information architecture, and made notes of what doesn't work.

After reviewing all of this information and consulting with the shop owner, our main design focus was:

How might we modernize our digital presence in a way that reflects its character and serves remote customers?

After reviewing all of this information and consulting with the shop owner, our main design focus was:

How might we modernize our digital presence in a way that reflects its character and serves remote customers?

Through user testing, I gathered valuable feedback that helped shape a clean, functional design tailored to Central Coast Surfboards' needs. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The shop owner was especially pleased with the direction and we're currently waiting on additional product images to complete the rest of the product catalog.

Although the site isn't yet ecommerce-enabled, the structure was built with future integration in mind. The owner is still considering how he wants to handle online sales, but the platform easily supports adding ecommerce functionality when he's ready.

I made sure the visual contrast met minimum requirements and ensured the site was navigable on both desktop and mobile devices. There's still room to improve accessibility features further, and that's something I plan to continue iterating on as the site evolves.

Through user testing, I gathered valuable feedback that helped shape a clean, functional design tailored to Central Coast Surfboards' needs. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The shop owner was especially pleased with the direction and we're currently waiting on additional product images to complete the rest of the product catalog.

Although the site isn't yet ecommerce-enabled, the structure was built with future integration in mind. The owner is still considering how he wants to handle online sales, but the platform easily supports adding ecommerce functionality when he's ready.

I made sure the visual contrast met minimum requirements and ensured the site was navigable on both desktop and mobile devices. There's still room to improve accessibility features further, and that's something I plan to continue iterating on as the site evolves.