Orley Shabahang

UX Design | Website Development

Orley Shabahang is a Milwaukee-based purveyor of contemporary and antique Persian revival carpets. All of Orley Shabahang’s carpets are made 100% by hand in the homes of weavers with whom they contract.

The Situation

Orley Shabahang was having a difficult time working within the constraints of their previous WordPress website template. Adding new products was extremely difficult, especially because a single product could have up to 14 different variations in size and colors.

Technical SEO issues, including missing headings, missing alternative text, and very large images, were slowing the website down.

Most of the product detail pages were also missing strong calls to action (CTAs) to prompt visitors to reach out and schedule appointments.

The Solution

Northwoods transitioned the Orley Shabahang website to a more flexible WordPress page builder tool, called Beaver Builder, that works well with WooCommerce plugins for product management.

Beaver Builder helps the team easily manage general content pages while WooCommerce drives online product display, allowing for all necessary product properties, such as sizes, colors, images, and other data, to be effectively managed and maintained on the back end for seamless user-facing display.

The large banner at the top of the home page allows for image transitions using the “Ken Burns” effect to create the illusion of movement through zooms, pans and fade transitions added to still photographs. This draws the user’s attention to Orley Shabahang’s amazing imagery of their rugs in different settings.

Rug Collections

Orley Shabahang has a collection of rugs that range in style from traditional to contemporary. Each collection has a subset of categories that users can click through, or they can use the filter to narrow their search by size or color.

Rug collections contain clearly labeled thumbnails of each rug to give the user visual insight into what type of rugs to expect in each category. A small list of adjectives is also included to help users understand how each rug will impact the aesthetic of a room. The descriptions used in this section are short and to the point – when used in conjunction with the images is the user then has enough information to select the style they want. Visitors can view more detailed information on the product detail page.

The heading structure on these pages has been updated to follow the natural hierarchy of content, and breadcrumbs were added to help users easily identify what style of rugs they are viewing without getting lost.

The ability to jump between styles, sizes, and colors is always available so users can easily sort through all the different rugs Orley Shabahang offers.

Overall Website Design

Orley Shabahang’s site purposefully omits any unnecessary features. The minimalist, clean design ensures that the content and imagery are the primary focus. The site colors work well with the brand without being overpowering and help users focus on the right areas.

Plenty of whitespace is used throughout the website to create an organized look and feel.

All product images are of the highest quality, allowing users to zoom in with full clarity to better view the intricate, detailed design of each rug. Each image also contains a short but informative product description that accurately describes the rug with specifications listed below. This quickly provides the user with all the information they need to make an informed purchasing decision. However, if they have more detailed questions, a “contact us” button has been added at the bottom of each page.

The Outcome

In addition to the elegant new design, the Orley Shabahang team is amazed by how easily and quickly they can add a product to their website.

The layout of the product detail pages makes it easy for a site visitor to make an informed purchasing decision.

While Orley Shabahang’s catalog is currently limited, they plan to add many more products. Fortunately, with their new website and easy management tools, adding products is easy to do and positions them perfectly to offer full e-commerce capabilities in the future.