Overview
Estee & Cocoa is a boutique brand offering handmade chocolate gifts and seasonal collections. The website needed to capture the brand's warmth and elegance while simplifying the shopping process across collections.
The Challenge
To create a digital storefront that conveys emotional warmth and elegance, supports seasonal product shifts (like Tu BiShvat or holidays), and ensures easy ordering and delivery setup.
As part of the research phase, I analyzed boutique dessert and gifting websites, focusing on emotional design, product presentation, and the flow from inspiration to purchase.
My goal was to understand how visual storytelling impacts behavior:
What emotions are being triggered?
What makes a user pause, browse, or add to cart?
How can design support both indulgence and clarity?
I approached the process from the user’s point of view:
What am I here for — inspiration or action?
Do I feel guided or overwhelmed?
Can I imagine gifting this to someone I care about?
Based on these reflections, I:
✔ Structured the content to support emotional discovery
✔ Designed clear product pages with minimal distractions
✔ Created an elegant, responsive interface that balances beauty with usability
The result is a calm, confidence-building experience that highlights the unique personality of the Estee & Cocoa brand, while making gifting feel intuitive and joyful.
Landing → Seasonal collection → View product → Choose quantity → Add to cart → View cart → Checkout
Created clean grayscale wireframes for homepage, product listing, and detailed product view to prioritize visual flow.
The UI design was crafted to reflect Estee & Cocoa’s boutique and feminine brand identity—delicate, curated, and emotionally engaging.
I translated these brand values into a visual language that feels soft yet confident: using warm neutral tones, rounded shapes, generous white space, and elegant serif typography.
The overall tone is gentle but intentional. Each visual element was chosen to support a sense of calm beauty—inviting users to slow down, browse, and imagine the gifting experience.
Buttons and interactions were kept minimal and graceful, supporting intuitive action without disrupting the aesthetic flow.
Rather than overwhelming users with promotional clutter, the design creates a quiet, curated digital space that mimics the feeling of walking into a refined chocolate boutique.
This approach allowed the interface to become part of the brand experience—not just a means to an end, but a sensory, emotional layer of the product itself.
The website was built on WordPress with a customized WooCommerce integration, tailored to support both the boutique brand voice and a seamless e-commerce experience.
I implemented a streamlined checkout process that minimizes friction—from product selection to order confirmation—while maintaining the site’s visual elegance across all screens.
Each collection and product page was designed with reusable components and dynamic blocks to allow for seasonal flexibility (e.g., Tu BiShvat, Purim, Shavuot), without compromising consistency in layout or hierarchy.
Special attention was given to:
Mobile optimization, ensuring a smooth shopping experience on small screens
Order customization features like gift notes and wrapping options
Automatic price updates and total calculations in the cart
Clear CTAs that balance visibility with subtlety
The result is an e-commerce flow that feels personal, polished, and aligned with the high-touch nature of the brand—making it easy for customers to shop, gift, and share joyfully.
“Working with Chaya was a game-changer. She didn’t just build us a website—she translated our brand into a beautiful, intuitive experience. Every element had purpose, every screen felt thoughtful. Our customers constantly tell us how easy and enjoyable the site is to use.”
Estee & Cocoa
Designing for boutique e-commerce requires a careful balance of aesthetics and functionality. Giving users subtle guidance without clutter helps drive emotional purchases with confidence.
Tested with 3 users. Adjusted the cart layout and reduced form fields for faster order completion.