Emmy Tang - FayDa Bakery

Case Study: FayDa Bakery Website Redesign

Overview

Fayda Bakery, a beloved bakery chain with 15 locations in New York City, needed an updated, user-friendly website to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. Their previous WordPress site lacked essential functionality, was visually outdated, and created friction for their largely middle-aged, less tech-savvy customer base.

I led the redesign as the sole UI/UX designer, responsible for creating a streamlined, accessible experience while solving critical operational challenges. This project required not only design expertise but also technical problem-solving, as the website was migrated to Shopify— a platform I had no prior experience with.

The Problem

Fayda Bakery's Previous Website

Fayda Bakery's Previous Website [Desktop]

Fayda Bakery's Previous Website [Mobile]

FayDa Bakery’s previous website had several issues that impacted usability and business efficiency:

1. Outdated Design:

The site lacked a modern aesthetic and did not align with customer expectations.

Banners and images were actually links and was not intuitive to users.

2. Limited Usability:

-No search functionality, poor organization of content, and confusing layouts.

-Non responsive to mobile screens.

3. Order Friction:

-Customers had to re-enter location, date, and time for every product in their cart.

-Certain locations couldn’t restrict unavailable items, causing order errors.

-Pickup times couldn’t adjust dynamically per location.

4. Inconsistent Branding:

-No brand guidelines existed to ensure a cohesive design.

Research and Analysis

Goals

* Simplify the ordering process to reduce friction for users.

* Prevent order errors caused by unavailable items or incompatible pickup times.

* Establish a visually appealing, consistent design that represents Fayda Bakery’s brand.

Demographic

- Primary Users: Middle-aged, less tech-savvy individuals looking for quick and easy order placement.

- Secondary Users: Broader adult demographic seeking cakes and breads for special occasions.

Constraints

Shopify’s basic plan limited some functionality, requiring creative solutions to maintain cost-efficiency.

Task Flows

-Mapped the existing user flow to identify pain points.

-Created revised task flows to propose optimized solutions.

Ideation & Design Process

1. Branding:

Developed a simple brand guide to establish consistent typography, color schemes, and design principles.

Chose warm, inviting colors and clean fonts to reflect the bakery’s friendly atmosphere.

2. Wireframes & Prototypes:

Designed mockups in Figma, focusing on a clean layout with clear navigation.

Prioritized usability for non-tech-savvy users with prominent CTAs and easy-to-read text.

Original

Initial Solution

Current Solution

3. Functional Enhancements:

Streamlined Order Process- Added a pickup form on the cart page where users could select their location and pickup time as well as date for pickup. This dynamically adjusted based on the products in their cart to prevent selection of unavailable locations or times.

Order Accuracy- Created systems to enforce policy rules, such as providing direction to next day order through a form. Previously many customers would continue to request next-day orders despite the policy explicitly saying no same-day or next-day orders.

Cart Page [Desktop]

Cart Page [Mobile]

Contact Us Form

Product Organization- Enhanced navigation with a secondary menu for better category browsing.

Old shop page

Current shop page

Hover action over secondary menu

Old mobile view of shop page

Current mobile view of shop page

Custom Variants- Researched and found apps to implement conditional product variants, improving customization for cake order.

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: Shopify’s basic plan alone lacked support for location-based inventory filtering without changing current set operation processes.

Solution: Learned how to build a custom form to dynamically adjust location and time options based on product selection and how to work with Shopify liquid codes.

Challenge: Products were treated as shippable items by default.

Solution: Marked all items as “not a physical product” to bypass the shipping step during checkout.

Challenge: Cake products have many variant options and it was visually overwhelming to have so many options available at once. Shopify's default variant styling options were either buttons or dropdown with no capability to mix and match.

Solution: Found apps to create variant options that would be able to mix and match option styles as well as create conditionals so that only related options could be chosen, greatly simplifying the experience for the user without bombarding them with so many options.

Outcome

Results: Simplified User Experience; Customers could select pickup locations and times more easily, reducing order friction.

Error Prevention: Conditional forms minimized incorrect orders, saving time for both the bakery and its customers.

Positive Feedback: Regular customers noted the improved usability and modern design.

Operational Success: Payment and order processing worked seamlessly post-launch, with clients leveraging features like the “next day request” button, increasing orders.

Issues after launch: The conditionals for custom built checkout form did not work correctly on Apple IOS but worked successfully as intended on Android phones.

Metrics:

Fewer user complaints on the operating end regarding order errors.

Positive anecdotal feedback from both the client and customers.

Frequency of daily orders increased by 133%.

Final published website https://fayda.com/

Reflection

What I Learned:

Familiarity with Shopify: Gained significant expertise in customizing Shopify themes and working within its limitations.

The importance of research: While my initial ideas were promising, I needed to better understand Shopify’s technical constraints before diving into prototyping.

Designing for non-tech-savvy users requires extra care in clarity, simplicity, and testing.

Future Considerations:

Resolve iOS compatibility issues with the custom form.

Closing Thoughts

Redesigning the Fayda Bakery website was a rewarding challenge that combined UX design, branding, and technical problem-solving. By collaborating closely with the client and iterating based on feedback, I delivered a solution that aligned with their business needs and improved the customer experience.

Also fresh egg tarts straight from the oven is the best way to have them!