My Role

I was lead UX designer and UI developer from 2008 through 2012, at which point I chose to move to a freelance position and have maintained a working relationship to this day. FireStorm Graphix (FSG) specializes in providing a unique customer experience for race car drivers and my role has been to design and optimize the user experience for the e-commerce platform.

Once the 2014 redesign was launched, organic traffic increased by 49%.

2011 Redesign

FSG was originally written on the OSCommerce platform, with hidden secrets lurking around every file directory. With a heavily customized codebase, FireStorm needed a redesign using the hip design trends of 2011. I worked with a 1280-pixel design grid and began the process of migrating the HTML architecture from a table layout to a CSS and DIV-based layout.

2014 Redesign

2012-2014 was a great time for race car decals; visitors turning into customers was rising and with FSG being featured in Circle Track magazine, we were able to establish ourselves as the leader in high-quality race car decals.

During 2014, FSG made the choice to move away from the OSCommerce to the Magento platform. Looking to streamline user flows and increase conversion goals, FSG wanted to put emphasis on building a framework that was heavily influenced by SEO standards.

At the time Amazon still had a left-side navigation; for design inspiration and considering our large selection of race car decals to reduce cognitive friction, we followed this design pattern, laying out the full details of our inventory.

2017 Redesign

This FSG redesign reflects current e-commerce design trends: visual Megamenus showcasing FSG's unique style in full-bodied race car wraps. Grateful customers are constantly sending over their pride and joy covered with stunning visuals and fast-paced number designs.

Most Memorable Challenge?

Working with the heavily customized OSCommerce platform was extremely difficult. The file structure was massive and at times updating files could make or break other pages. The 2011 redesign was not easy, needing multiple template files updated just to get the right look and feel on customized single product pages.

Behind the Scenes

The following are wireframes and sketches collected over time for FireStorm Graphix: