A redesign and rebranding project with a high degree of customization.
Noocity launched with a small yet functional website on WordPress with a WooCommerce store to market their grow beds and accessories.
Soon the business grew and demanded a new, more professional system.
The focus:
- A better user experience
- Smoother eCommerce features
- A hassle-free purchase process and order management
Our work centred around creating an authentic brand narrative that transcended the shopping experience, as well as providing customers with relevant resources about urban gardening, healthy lifestyles and hands-on guidance to get the most out of Noocity’s innovative grow beds.
We started with an intense, day-long, discovery workshop.
Together with our client’s team, we aligned on the project’s vision, objectives and challenges.
We carried on multiple design thinking exercises that allowed us to:
- Take a deep dive into the business and design challenges
- Learn about target audiences
- Prioritise requirements
- Confront technical limitations
- Draft first ideas on how to approach the challenges
Beyond the technical briefing, Noocity wanted a bold and distinctive look and feel, on the pulse of their growing international clientele.
Our designers set out to work closely with Noocity’s Marketing department: together they came up with a simple yet powerful UX and UI concept.
Our technical team set out to evaluate the best platform for the case: a custom-made Shopify theme, paired with a WordPress engine.
This mix allowed to accommodate an eclectic mix of editorial content created by Noocity’s collaborators, food-and lifestyle bloggers and growers.
The technical solution required a few gymnastics moves from us.
You see, Shopify is a great and accessible tool for small and medium eCommerce businesses.
But it isn’t (yet) the best option for managing content beyond products and collections.
So, because content marketing and providing hands-on support to clients across Europe were mandatory for our client, we added WordPress into the mix.
But the project’s high degree of customization, paired with Shopify ́s limitations in multilingual and multi-domain support, meant a considerable challenge.
Hence, the solution: we launched three individual online stores.
French, Portuguese and English, working seamlessly.
The refined brand messaging worked just right, with:
- A light and approachable tone of voice
- Supported by inspiring visuals and warm colours
- With just the right amount of animations
And clear call-to-action buttons.
And then, Covid-19 hit the world.
The lockdown meant a further effort to launch the “new” Noocity just in time for the planting season in spring 2020.
But we did it.
The new, re-branded Noocity was well received.
Not only did it please loyal customers, but has helped win new fans in every target market.
The blog and storyteller sections, consistent in design and messaging, now provide a rich compilation of growing advice, recipes, lifestyle and workshops for the 360º customer experience.
Shopify ́s easy-to-use back office - and one of the best-tested check-out processes on the market - means the Noocity team can now focus on developing its marketing and providing great customer service, instead of solving issues.
And thanks to the “dual” concept we helped develop - by addressing private vs corporate clients - every user is quickly finding their way to the product.
Noocity ́s business continues to grow.
New products and services are to be added soon.
And we are happy to see more lush green on balconies and rooftops in the cities around Europe.
