Product Type :
Concept project
E-commerce
Role and Duration :
UX Designer / End to end Product Designer
1 Week
Intended impact :
Because this is a concept project, the impact has not been validated with live product data. The design is intended to improve seller activation, buyer trust, product discovery, and checkout confidence.
Vision :
Create a trust led e-commerce website that helps Indian artisans expands market access through digital storefronts with less operational effort, while helping buyers confidently evaluate handmade products through provenance, artisan identity, process storytelling, transparent policies, and secure checkout.
At A Glance
India Craft House is a concept two sided e-commerce website for buyers and artisan sellers across India. The core UX problem is not only shopping friction, it is bilateral trust. On the supply side, artisans need market access, low-friction onboarding, and simple tools to publish and manage products online. On the demand side, buyers need enough evidence to believe that a higher priced handmade item is authentic, well described, and safe to purchase. Official government and ecosystem sources show a large handicraft workforce, growing formalization through Pehchan and scheme portals, strong export demand, and still limited e-commerce participation among the country’s sellers. e-commerce UX research shows that product-detail completeness, transparent policies, strong trust signals, and visually secure checkout meaningfully affect willingness to buy online.
Problem
Indian artisans need wider market access, low overhead because craft is their full time work selling isn't
Online buyers may pay more for authentic handmade products, but they hesitate when maker identity, materials, process, pricing, delivery, returns, and authenticity proof are unclear.
How might we
How might a single website help Indian artisans reach wider markets without increasing operational overhead, while giving buyers enough evidence to trust authentic handmade products online?
Goals
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Build a marketplace around trust, provenance, and cultural storytelling.
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Reduce buyer drop-off caused by uncertainty. Reduce seller drop-off caused by complex onboarding.
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Support low-bandwidth conditions by keeping essential content available before heavy media loads.
Buyer
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Help buyers discover handmade products by craft, region, material, use case, and story.
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Make authenticity visible before checkout.
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Provide enough product evidence to justify price and reduce hesitation.
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Keep shipping, return, support, and purchase protection information close to the buying decision.
Artisan
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Reduce initial seller effort through guided onboarding.
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Support mobile first listing creation.
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Help sellers describe products clearly through templates and examples.
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Make orders, inventory, payouts, and support visible in one dashboard.
Research Approach
Method
What was reviewed
Why it mattered
Output
Desk research
Government craft portals, artisan scheme materials, export data, internet access data
To understand market size, seller constraints, verification opportunities, and digital access patterns
Market context, taxonomy cues, seller access constraints
Competitor audit
Etsy, Amazon Karigar, GoCoop, Okhai
To understand how comparable platforms frame trust, selling support, and craft discovery
Opportunity map and feature comparison
Heuristic evaluation
Discovery, product detail, seller onboarding, checkout, support flows
To evaluate public competitor surfaces against usability principles
Design principles for clarity, recovery, and effort reduction
Standards review
Google Search Central, W3C WCAG 2.2, e commerce UX guidance
To translate the concept into crawlable, accessible web patterns
SEO, accessibility, and form-design requirements
No primary interviews or usability tests were conducted. Therefore, the insights should be treated as informed hypotheses. The next step would be validating them with artisans, craft buyers, cooperatives, and accessibility focused usability testing.
Feature Comparison Chart
Key Research Findings
Finding 1: Seller access is the first order marketplace problem
The system level gap is not craft supply. It is digital participation. Many artisans need more than a sign up form. They need assisted onboarding, simple language, examples, save and resume flows, and low friction listing tools.
UX implication
The seller side should not begin with a generic “Create account” flow. It should begin with role selection, language choice, phone-based entry, guided setup, and a clear path to the first product listing.
Finding 2: Buyer trust information is often fragmented
On many platforms, parts of the trust story live on product pages, parts live in policy pages, and parts live in brand storytelling. This creates extra work for buyers.
UX implication
India Craft House should bring trust-critical information into the main buying journey. Product origin, maker identity, materials, process video, shipping, returns, price explanation, and authenticity cues should appear close to the product CTA.
Finding 3: Craft taxonomy should follow culture as well as commerce
A generic e-commerce structure such as Home, Decor, Fashion, and Gifts is not enough for handmade craft. Buyers may browse by product type, but they may also search by region, technique, material, craft name, or GI-backed craft identity.
UX implication
The information architecture should support both retail language and craft language. A buyer should be able to search for “wall art” as easily as “Dokra,” “Kalamkari,” “Kantha,” or “Kutch embroidery.”
Finding 4: Findability is a conversion feature
For craft products, discovery is not just about browsing. It directly affects trust and conversion. If users cannot filter by craft, region, material, price, lead time, or verified status, they may leave before evaluating products.
UX implication
Search results should include clear filters, active filter chips, sorting, result counts, and product cards that show enough trust information before the user opens a product page.
Finding 5: Forms and authentication must reduce effort
Both buyers and sellers need low-friction forms. Sellers may be mobile-first and documentation-anxious. Buyers may abandon checkout if registration, payment, returns, or security feel unclear.
UX implication
Seller onboarding should use save-and-resume, OTP-aware entry, flexible formatting, inline help, and progress indicators. Buyer checkout should support guest checkout, clear errors, editable information, and post-purchase account creation.
Identifying the target users
India Craft House serves two structurally different user groups.
Design Opportunities
The research was translated into four design opportunities.
Make trust visible at the moment of decision
Buyers should not have to search through policies or brand pages to understand authenticity. Product pages should show maker identity, craft process, region, materials, product story, verification status, shipping, return policy, and support options near the purchase area.
Reduce seller effort through guided creation
Many artisans may not know how to write product titles, descriptions, care instructions, or pricing details. The system should provide templates, examples, progress indicators, and quality checks.
Design discovery around craft behaviour
Users should be able to browse by product type, region, craft, material, gifting purpose, and verified status. This supports both casual buyers and users who already know specific craft names.
Treat authenticity as a system, not a badge
A badge alone is not enough. Authenticity should be supported through product media, maker profile, process video, material details, source backed verification, buyer reviews, reporting tools, and time-stamped verification data.
Information Architecture
Key User Flows
Buyer flow
Seller onboarding flow
Final Design
Scroll on me
Buyer Shopping Flow
The design follows a trust-led journey:
Discover the craft → compare products → understand the maker → buy with confidence.
The key decision was to keep trust information visible throughout the buying flow. Search, filters, verified badges, product origin, maker identity, materials, process videos, shipping, returns, and pricing cues are placed close to user decisions. This helps buyers understand what they are buying, who made it, why it is valuable, and what to expect after purchase.
The focus was to reduce purchase hesitation through a clear, editable, and guest friendly checkout. The order summary stays visible throughout, users review costs, delivery, payment, and authenticity before confirming the purchase, and only create an account after the order is confirmed.
Craft & Storytelling
These make craft stories and artisan identity a key part of product trust. Instead of showing products as isolated items, the design highlights makers, regions, techniques, process videos, craft guides, and related products helps buyers understand the cultural value behind each craft and connecting every product to a real artisan, process, and place.
Artisan Seller Onboarding Flow
These screens make selling feel simple and guided. Seller type, language choice, save and resume, progress steps, examples, listing health, and live preview help artisans set up and publish products with less confusion.
Seller Dashboard Flow
Make seller management easier by bringing orders, inventory, payouts, listings, alerts, and quality scores into one dashboard, helping artisans see what needs attention and act quickly.
Support, Trust & Account Screens
Impact
India Craft House reframes handmade E commerce from simple shopping into a trust led experience. By combining craft discovery, provenance rich product pages, artisan stories, guest checkout, guided seller setup, and seller dashboards, the design helps buyers purchase with confidence while making online selling easier for artisans.
Because this is a concept project, these metrics have not been tested with real users yet. Instead, they define how the product’s impact should be validated in the next stage: seller onboarding completion rate, time to first published listing, listing quality score, filter usage, product detail engagement, checkout completion rate, authenticity related complaints, support requests, payout success rate, and repeat purchase rate.
Next Steps
Validate buyer confidence
Test whether filters, provenance cues, artisan stories, policies, and product cards reduce hesitation during discovery and purchase.
Test seller usability
Evaluate onboarding, save-and-resume, listing templates, and dashboard flows with artisans and cooperatives.
Refine checkout clarity
Assess guest checkout, editable review steps, visible order summary, payment trust cues, and support paths.
Measure product impact
Track onboarding completion, time to first listing, listing quality, filter usage, checkout completion, support requests, authenticity complaints, repeat purchases, and payout success.