MicronPC Online Store
MicronPC was a direct sales computer manufacturer. MicronPC manufactured laptop, desktop and server machines and directly competed with Dell and Gateway in the PC market. In 1999, MicronPC was at the height of the company’s success. While employed by Frog Design, I worked as part of a team to rethink and redesign the company’s eCommerce experience.
My Role
I was one of several designers on the team. I had previously worked for another direct sales computer manufacturer, Power Computing, and had a good understanding on who the customers were and what tasks they hoped to accomplish on the MicronPC site. I contributed largely to the visual design, but also worked on the information architecture.
Project Goals
- Allow customers to browse and purchase computers.
- Provide a somewhat different experience for customers depending on their market, i.e. Home, Business, Education, etc.
- Allow customers to create configurations for laptops, desktops, and servers based on available parts.
- Create a visual design style that matched the company's new brand.
- Create a visual design style guide that could be handed over to MicronPC’s internal web team, to allow them to update the site as needed.
- Increase sales.
Finished Design
My first task in the redesign of MicronPC’s site was mapping out their current site. As the redesign progressed, I updated the site map with the new pages. This sitemap was a valuable reference for team members. I also created the visual design on of the MiconPC site, a process that involved working with both stakeholders inside Frog and MicronPC.
Although Frog Design was responsible for delivering all aspects of the design, MiconPC’s web team was responsible for implementation. To facilitate this process I created a style guide and a large set of photoshop templates which could be used to create hero graphics, product graphics, sidebar graphics, and other necessary graphics.
