Lost Bear Gallery is a leading destination for contemporary art in the Blue Mountains, NSW, with a superb collection of paintings, sculptures, ceramics and glass art by acclaimed Australian artists.
The gallery wanted us to build a website to promote its artists, exhibitions and events, connect with a wider audience, and function as an online shop to increase sales.
Thanks to the self-managed and user-friendly website, Lost Bear Gallery is able to keep its content up-to-date easily and ensure a consistent and visually appealing experience for its users. This has resulted in improved interactions with customers, making it easier for them to navigate the site and find the information or products they need without feeling overwhelmed.
During the first 10 months, Lost Bear Gallery’s website generated approximately A$7,000 in online sales. The gallery received more than 170 new submissions through various contact channels, including their contact form, product inquiry popup, and mailing list.
We conducted UX research to gain insight into the needs of both business stakeholders and end-users that included: interviews with key stakeholders, such as the gallery owner, marketing manager, and sales manager; auditing direct and indirect competitors to identify the best practices and common design patterns; and identifying art collectors as the primary user persona.
Based on this research, I created a comprehensive list of goals, pain points, and behaviours of Lost Bear Gallery and its end-users as a guide for making design decisions for the project.
I used an object map in my design process to help me understand the website’s hierarchy and how the objects are related to each other and fit into the overall user experience.
This helped me to identify potential gaps, patterns or redundancies in the design and make informed decisions about how to design and build the system.
Adding the following specific features to the WordPress backend to better suit Lost Bear’s needs and requirements improved the overall user experience and made it easier for Lost Bear Gallery to manage and update the content.
Artist and Exhibition.
Lost Bear can add even more information and details to their posts beyond the default fields that come with WordPress.
New Products under Artwork, Booklet, Greeting Card and Limited Edition Print categories
To help filter, link and classify the content.
Between the different objects of the system.
Designed custom page templates with dynamic tags, giving Lost Bear more control over its website and enabling them to make modifications while maintaining consistency across all pages easily.
Dynamic tags offer a flexible and efficient way to manage content, reducing the time and effort required to make changes. This results in a better user experience, as the website’s design and functionality remain consistent and cohesive.
Lost Bear can easily access and manage product details, inventory levels, order status, shipping details, and customer information without the need to switch between different platforms or tools.
Artist and Exhibition
Artist Page – Custom Posts
Exhibition Page – Custom Posts
Lost Bear can add even more information and details to their posts beyond the default fields that come with WordPress.
New Products under Artwork, Booklet, Greeting Card and Limited Edition Print categories.
By incorporating some filters and dynamic tags to the artist page template. The page pull and showcase the personalised content.
As part of the design process, I designed an interface that’s clean and simple, focusing on usability, to ensure that users can find and understand the information they need without feeling overwhelmed by excessive details or a visually cluttered interface.
I carefully chose colours and fonts consistent with the brand’s identity and message to achieve this. Black and white is an effective colour scheme for creating a minimalist interface with high contrast that visually helps separate different elements of the website while allowing the artwork (colour) to take centre stage.
I customized the product templates to ensure our users have a consistent and engaging experience navigating the website. By designing these templates, I aligned the shop pages with the overall look and feel of the site, making it easier for users to find what they need and make purchases confidently.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, offers numerous UX benefits, such as a straightforward and intuitive checkout process and multiple payment options.
To prevent frustration, I implemented a widely used visual code: a red dot icon, indicating artwork that is no longer available for purchase. This common practice in the art gallery industry provides a clear visual cue for users.
I made it easy for users to stay up-to-date with the gallery's latest exhibitions and events using a user-friendly interface similar to a magazine.
Users can also subscribe to the gallery's newsletter by clicking the designated link in the website's footer section.
The website is accessible and easy to use across different screen sizes and devices.
website: lostbeargallery.com.au
I faced UX constraints while designing Lost Bear’s website. First, the client’s specifications were that the navigation menu could not include a separate “Shop” page. This meant that users had to purchase artwork through the exhibition or artist page, which required additional consideration in terms of how to present artwork and facilitate purchases effectively.
Another challenge was the loss of design control that came with making the website self-managed. While this enabled the client to add and update content without needing designers/developers, it required me to give up some level of control over the design and layout of the website. This meant I had to carefully consider creating a visually appealing and cohesive design that the client could easily update.
Working with a company with limited resources and time required me to adapt my design approach to fit their workflow. This involved prioritizing the most important features while finding innovative solutions to meet their requirements. Not all the accessibility features could be automated for content updating, such as alt text for images and keyboard navigation. Therefore, working closely with the client was crucial to ensure that all essential features were implemented correctly.
Despite the constraints, the website successfully sold over $7k worth of art within 10 months and received more than 170 new submissions through various contact channels. This demonstrated that by carefully balancing the UX constraints and finding creative solutions to meet the client’s needs, we were able to create a versatile, minimalistic and self-managed website for Lost Bear Gallery to connect with a wider audience and increase sales.
