Caputo's Market + Deli
Family owned and locally operated, Caputo’s Market + Deli is a staple of the Salt Lake food scene. They’re nationally recognized for their expertise in cheese and chocolate, but their website didn’t reflect the craftsmanship and breadth of knowledge behind their products. An outdated and inefficient eCommerce experience prevented them from achieving further growth.
On this project, I worked on a team with one other UX designer, two visual designers, two engineers.
Discovery and Research
Caputo’s asked the Contravent team to overhaul their entire website. They hoped to bring the warmth of their vibrant customer community to their online experience and needed to improve the usability of their eCommerce section. They also expressed serious frustration with a broken backend system that failed to accurately track product inventory and class registrations.
After conducting stakeholder interviews, our team had a clear understanding of Caputo’s pain points and business needs. Our team discussed adding new content to the site and restructuring the global navigation. First, we wanted to gain insight to how customer interpreted both existing and new content categories. To begin, I developed a card sorting exercise to understand how customers categorized the eCommerce product categories and the new content offerings we were considering for the website. We recruited 46 participants to complete the exercise from Caputo’s mailing list.The results were telling: The card sort results showed that users struggled with industry specific terms, such as 'Meet Your Monger' and 'See the Cheese Cave.' Users seemed to struggle with the overall number of categories, and the marketing categories, like 'Caputo's At Home' and 'Cravings—Monthly Products.'
I used this insight to refine the information architecture for a simplified experience. We cut content categories that indicated user confusion or that simply lacked enough content to warrant a dedicated page. I combined some sections, such as classes and events, around a common user goal. Lastly, I thought about how I could better include community features, like signature recipes and in-person classes, to their eCommerce experience.
Design and Ideation
With a simplified site structure, I began sketching ideas for the new homepage design. I wanted to introduce the Caputo’s product and establish the community-centric experience above the fold. The large hero space features high-quality, beautiful images of Caputo’s deli sandwiches and artisanal products. As the user scrolls, they are introduced to the eCommerce categories and then lead to community features, like how-to videos and blog posts. Lastly, the homepage pulls in posts from Instagram to provide social proof and community-generated content.
The community aspects are also featured within the eCommerce experience. When viewing an individual product, the user is shown related products, recipes that include that particular product, and customer reviews.
The website redesign strategically repositioned Caputo’s as craftsmen, modernized the UI, and enhanced the site’s functionality as a whole.
Project Status
The website is live and can be viewed at caputos.com.
UX Design by Fiona Foster + UI Design by Craig Mitchell and Mandy Booth
UX Design by Fiona Foster + UI Design by Craig Mitchell and Mandy Booth
