Platform gathering artisan products
Zenpuls is a unique place where clients can discover outstanding local manufacturers and support them by buying their goods. It unveils the history and the making process behind rare, traditional objects.
Platform gathering artisan products
The client came to us after having struggled with other developers to meet the requirements of the project. They had some design and back-end work done in Python and wanted to develop the platform with essential features.
Their site served merely “add to cart” function and the code was of poor quality. Moreover it had the e-commerce logic implemented in the code (unlike the typical e-commerce solutions) so the whole platform would be hard to develop further.
The main problem was that the platform didn’t work properly and represent the high quality of the products offered.
New brand and communication
We decided to go back and think the whole business over. To succeed Zenpuls didn’t need to develop more features, they needed to communicate the quality of traditional products and stories of their craftsmen. We decided to build a new brand that will represent the goal of Zenpuls that is to save craftsmanship.
E-commerce platform based on open source code
In terms of e-commerce we’ve done two versions of the site, temporary one and the final platform. Temporary website on Django Oscar simply allowed to sell products, but with the new brand in mind. In the meantime we worked on branding, layout and engine of the final website. We saved much time on development integrating open source code. We’ve used ready-made, out of the box solutions, which give the client a full control over the e-commerce platform.
Technology stack used to build the platform
Zenpuls is built with the most advanced, state-of-the-art technologies and solutions. We wrote it in Python, Django and Oscar, which allowed us to modify existing e-commerce components instead of writing the code from scratch.
We made use of BEM methodology, thanks to which the code is readable, modular and light.
We gave up jQuery in favour of ECMAScript 6 classes, so the page logic weighs 20kb only. Babel tool converted ES6 to be understandable to all browsers.
To automate the development process we used Jenkins, Ansible, pull requests, and code review with GitFlow.
All icons are in vectors and the page looks perfectly sharp on retina. The platform is fully responsive, with content-first approach – the user gets layout, texts and only then the bells and whistles. The application fully customizable, ready to add extra features in future.
Prototypes
Using Adobe XD we’ve built wireframes to test the UX solutions and ensure we cover all business needs. Based on that we’ve prepared the final web design.
UX/UI design process
Video & post-production
The client provided us with 100GB of unused raw video content. We did video editing and color correction, so several short films can appear on the website to reflect the brand.
Result: premium brand and e-commerce platform
An entirely new brand and an MVP of an e-commerce platform reflecting the premium character of the goods offered. The client is fully equipped with business materials & a platform that will carry high traffic and can be developed further. They are ready to build their in-house marketing team.
