Nina McLemore is a distinguished upscale fashion brand specializing in professional women’s workwear. Worn by CEOs, public figures, and politicians, Nina’s collection is well-recognized. However, the brand’s online presence was lacking, and the store’s outdated website was in severe need of an upgrade.
Here is a look at the old Nina McLemore homepage after I made some initial CSS updates. While the site still appears very bare-bones, it was a start.
This old site was plagued by numerous issues, including broken links and pages, slow-loading images, and a confusing navigation system. These issues were a major source of frustration for users, resulting in numerous complaints about the website’s functionality.
Upon viewing the old website, any visitor would be left pondering when it had last been updated. Driven by a desire to revamp the brand’s digital footprint, I made it my mission to breathe new life into the website and provide it with a refreshed, modern look.
One of the most pressing issues brought to my attention was that the old website still required manual inventory updates in order to keep the online store in sync with the warehouse. This was far from optimal, as it required an individual to go through all 70+ pages of inventory and edit each product manually, which only occurred every 1-2 weeks at most.
I developed a tailor-made inventory updating application to bridge the gap between the traditional manual record-keeping methods and the new Shopify website. This client-side app, written in JavaScript, is designed to eradicate the numerous human errors present in legacy documents and convert them into a Shopify-compatible format.
With its ability to sanitize inventory data accurately and efficiently, this application represents a significant step forward in streamlining the company’s inventory management process, providing a more seamless flow for backend operations.
Further leveraging the power of client-side programming, I incorporated an advanced store locator that far surpasses the rudimentary PDF spreadsheet displayed in the past. This new store locator, integrated with Google Maps, is interactive and user-friendly, enhancing the overall customer experience on the site.
Other upgrades to the site included revamping the About and Press pages, along with modernizing the recruitment section. However, I did encounter the hurdle of spambots attacking the recruiting form. To address this issue, I swiftly implemented a reCAPTCHA feature, which has proven highly effective in preventing spam submissions.
Overall, the website’s new design boasts larger, more visually appealing images, streamlined navigation, and a more intuitive layout, vastly improving the overall user experience. The website’s organization has been significantly enhanced, making it far more user-friendly than its predecessor. This two-month-long design process has been both demanding and rewarding. Online presence is integral to a brand, and I’m excited to see what this redesign will continue to do for the company.
