Bucketfeet
Bucketfeet collaborates with a global community of artists to design handmade-to-order shoes, spark conversations, and create a brighter world. A year before being acquired by Threadless, the Bucketfeet team underwent their largest design and technology overhaul. Working closely with their co-founder and CTO, we visualized the current product experience and identified major stakeholders and digital barriers that were slowing the growth in a variety of key areas.
1. Community Experience
Providing artist with a dedicated platform to submit artwork, track progress, and promote shoes was key to creating a community of engaged artists. A better experience for the artist meant less time waiting for approval and led to an increase in submissions over time from artists.
- Download templates
- Identify consumer trending themes and submit designs
- Monitor their sales and top performing designs
- Update their artist profile
2. Streamlined Production Process
From the beginning, it was clear we could have the biggest impact within the domain of the review/approval process. Tooling internal staff with key features to streamline this process allowed the company to accommodate and maintain quick approvals as artists submissions and new products were introduced.
- Quickly review & tag submissions daily
- Approve design to produce
- Create collections for pre-sale & voting
- Launch shoe in online store
3. One of a Kind
As printing on 3D objects advanced, so did the opportunity to truly create a one of a kind shoes. Designing a custom shoe builder was key to solving Bucketfeet’s inventory problem. Armed with their most popular silhouette, we worked to design an interface where creating your own custom design was within reach—even if you’re not an artist.
- Upload unique design or work from exisiting patterns & colors
- Review your shoe in a 3D environment
- Purchase
Instead of relying on individual atoms, we started considering our components as elements of a living organism. They have a function and personality, are defined by a set of properties, can co-exists with others and can evolve independently. Each component is defined by its required elements (such as title, text, icon and picture), and may sometimes contain optional elements. These elements are both defined in the source document as well as in code.
As component were compiled and organized, productivity increased and screens for prototyping purposes were streamlined and executed quickly.
