Design: Herman Miller Store
Summary: Furniture giant Herman Miller's first effort with online sales, the hmstore enables users to easily browse, research, customize, and buy office chairs in an environment which articulates the company's outstanding brand image. Return customers are recognized by the site in order to maintain an ongoing manufacturer-customer relationship.
Problem context: Herman Miller wanted to build an online store that would communicate its exemplary brand to a wider, non-corporate audience.
Project goal: Create an end-user experience that would articulate Herman Miller's exemplary brand image and move "hmstore" beyond an online catalog to a site that intelligently and actively sells products through a relationship with the customer. The core objective was to provide an environment for researching, configuring, pricing and purchasing Herman Miller office chairs. Other objectives included: maintain Herman Miller's enviable reputation for furniture and print design excellence with outstanding but appropriate Web visuals; allow users to see different types of Herman Miller chairs based on their selection of options; design a smooth and easy process for configuring and purchasing chairs; allow users to retain personal information on the site for quicker purchasing.
Target audience: Anyone shopping for small office/home office furniture, particularly small-business customers and customers purchasing for the home.
My role: Participated in the creative team which identified and specified business and user requirements; on the team that developed of all functionality, UI, and visual design. Led implementation of UI code using ATG Dynamo JHTML with engineers and designers.
Splash screen
Splash screen for the site.
Storefront
After the splash screen, users arrive at the storefront. A simple rollover-navigation scheme along the bottom affords easy access to chairs, while navigation along the top accesses non-browsing functionality.
Introduction to Aeron Chair
After selecting a chair, users see a large image of the chair and introductory copy. A new navigation bar allows users to move to other information on this chair.
Details for Avian Chair
An example of the details display for a particular chair.
Operation of Avian Chair
An example of the operation display for a particular chair.
Introduction to Equa 1 Chair
Another example of an introduction for a particular chair.
Customize an Equa 2
On this screen, users may select from a range of options to customize their chair. Note the use of images rather than pull-down menus, which keeps the site up to Herman Miller's demanding graphic standards.
Contextual Tools: Size Chart
If users are unsure of their correct chair size, this pop-up window ensures that they make the right choice.
Shopping Cart
The standard shopping cart, and more. Users are able to reconfirm product information, check prices, and remove items from the cart, all with better presentation than the typical Web site.
Purchase Info
Another success in ATG's never-ending quest to design more attractive information-entry screens.
Review Order
Users are able to look over their item and purchase information one last time before committing to a purchase.
Help
The Help interface for the hmstore.