Background Information

The owners of Soap & Spa Essentials, Deiadra and Arnold, contacted me as well as a handful of other designers in need of a revamped, completely redesigned website with e-commerce capabilities. A point was made that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and them being able to edit the content of their own website without having to contact me or hire another website developer was top of mind. This is the perfect case to use WordPress as a CMS! Their previous website contained a lot of invalid code and frames. Yes, frames! That is NOT good. It also didn't utilize basic SEO techniques. So, I came to the rescue!

Soap & Spa Essentials specialize in handmade soaps and other skin care products that are all-natural and extremely addicting to use because of the absence of harsh chemicals that the big brand companies use. I have to say that I am now a customer for life, as I feel the benefits of using their products on my own sensitive skin.

Back to the project… After an initial interview and a couple of e-mails later, I woke up one morning, grabbed a cup of coffee (cup 1 of about 7 in a typical day), and received an e-mail congratulating me on getting the job! Needless to say, I was a happy camper.

We scheduled another meeting at their store to discuss the details of their e-commerce website project, finalized a payment schedule, and a deadline for the website to be complete. At this time, I asked a lot of questions pertaining to art direction, likes, dislikes, and their vision of the complete website. Along the way, we came up with extra ideas and eye candy to enhance the overall visual appearance.

Eye Candy

The homepage incorporates the three main colors used in Soap & Spa Essentials' brand: green, blue, and white. These colors create a sense of relaxation, cleanliness, and simplicity. I had the idea that we should incorporate some handwriting into the website as small details since their products are handmade and all-natural. You can see these handwritten effects on the main navigation and their rollover/active/current states. We also wanted to incorporate nice, elegant fonts that flow together nicely and fit the brand.

To the left is the sidebar that features a shopping cart and product categories, followed by social media networks and an image displaying BabySwags, which is a company that is dedicated to helping entrepreneurial women market their products and/or services to the general public as well as to the media and celebrities. We are currently implementing a special page dedicated to testimonials from celebrities who enjoyed their products!

The homepage also features a slideshow that can be updated with images, promotional pieces, and virtually anything else. A blurb telling the visitor about the company is right in the middle, followed by new product additions and best sellers. The top right corner also features some neat jQuery, but you'll have to find out for yourself just what it does! :-)

The above image is a screenshot of what the website looks like when a visitor clicks on a product category. The owners are currently working on the website to get all of the their product shots with a clean, white background. This will enhance the overall design a lot. In the meantime, I put a nice blue border around each image.

Here, we have a single product page with related products displayed under it. This helps cross-promote products and attempts to get the visitors to browse around more, discovering new products and hopefully purchasing more than they intended. Hey, we all do it!

Conclusion

This was one fun project to work on and I want to thank Deiadra and Arnold from Soap & Spa Essentials for choosing me out of the handful of other designers they interviewed for this project! Thank you!

I am not just saying this because they are a client of mine, but you should definitely try one of their products. Not only for sensitive skin, but for everyone's skin. They make products that will help keep your skin, hair, and even your pets clean and moisturized with only the purest, natural ingredients. Read their Educate Yourself (FYI) page and find out why their products are so much better for your skin than big name brands.