Case Study
Website for independent author and storyteller C.W. Lamb
UI Designer, UX Research, Wireframing,
Prototyping, Brand Application
Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator,
Wordpress, Microsoft Teams, Pencil & Paper
One Month Timeline
(12/01/2023 – 12/29/2023)
Who is the author?
C.W. Lamb is an independent self-publishing author that sells his books on Amazon.com. He offers digital, print and audio versions of his work to readers all over the world. After realizing visitors were not spending time on his site, and the click through rates to Amazon were minimal, C.W. Lamb realized he needed to update and streamline his website to increase user interaction and sales.
Charlie originally reached out to me to do a redesign, look and feel, upgrade to his website, but the more we talked we discovered we could increase the user experiences and potential book sales as well. With years of designing and creating websites for small to medium businesses, I thought this would be a great opportunity to help an independent author.
What was the issue at hand?
Currently, the website is not particularly user friendly or visually, up to modern standards. Navigation is a bit clumsy for visitors who wish to purchase books or interact with the author. To currently purchase a book, the reader must find the author’s store on Amazon, then search for the book of interest.
Users have noted that they enjoy reading his books but wish it was easier to find them on Amazon without having to search. Some have noted that other sites have books for sale directly on the website or single click through to Amazon.com. Seeing as most of his books are digital or audio, we concluded that single click to sales would be the best option.
Understanding the readers
The research begins
Starting off the new journey, I began looking at similar websites of other independent authors. I took notes on what I thought would work for our site and presented the idea to my client. After going back and forth a few times, I had a good game plan on where to start and the direction to head to.
Early ideation (initial designs)
Early ideation (initial designs)
After meeting with the client and notating their wants and needs, I created simple drawings of page layout and flow. Even though it was not a large website, I wanted to clearly relay my ideas visually to the client. Taking his feedback and making adjustments where needed, I moved forward with a wire frame mock-up of the website.
Initial design and testing
Initial design and testing
Upon completing the wire framing and flow of the website, I moved on to the look and feel for the site. Charlie has an amazing artist for the covers of his books, so I want to play on this and emphasize the artwork. Using the colors and images from his latest release I created a page look that would carryout through the website. It is said that the covers are what sell books, so I want to make sure the artwork was front and center.
Variations of the main design were critiqued, and suggestions were made by testers. The majority of positive feedback were for version B. I took that information and input and presented the client with a working website that he would able to navigate through. After feedback from additional tester, minor tweaks and updates, such as larger buttons, easier to read font sizes, were made.
Charlie has been extremely pleased with his new website. He has noticed an increase of over 20% new visitors and they have been staying 40% longer than from the previous site. Most importantly, his book sales have increased 28% and click through to his Amazon store have gone up to just under 50%. He has received nothing but positive feedback from his readers on the new site.
Plans for the future
Plans for the future
This summer we will be adding an audio book only section, where visitors can listen to excerpts from his books before they purchase them. We are also looking at putting in flip pages so visitors have the opportunity to read the first chapter of books without having to leave the site.