Chicago · Illinois
UI/UX design in Chicago
A catalogue several levels deep can leave a customer with no idea where they are or how they got there, particularly when they arrived from a search result rather than from the top. Without a visible position in the structure, the only navigation available is the browser back button, and that is a poor way to explore a range.
Knowing where you are in a deep catalogue
Wayfinding is made of small, unglamorous parts.
A breadcrumb showing the actual path, with every level clickable, tells somebody where they are and offers the most useful move available — going up one level rather than starting again. A category page that states what is in it and how many items, rather than opening directly onto a grid, orients a visitor before they start scanning. Headings and titles that match what the customer clicked confirm they arrived where they intended, and a mismatch there is quietly disorienting even when nobody can say why. Two details are worth care. A product reachable through several paths needs one canonical position in the breadcrumb rather than a trail that changes depending on the route, because a path that varies teaches the customer that the structure is not real. And the deepest level should still show what sits beside it, since a visitor who has arrived at the wrong item usually wants its neighbours rather than the homepage.
We have no office in Chicago. Our studio is in Rajkot, India, and every project here is delivered remotely — if a supplier who can attend your premises matters to you, that is a fair requirement and we do not meet it.
What a UI/UX design project includes
Three things, and they are the same wherever you are. What changes is the subject above.
UX audit against a published checklist
Redesign of the highest-revenue templates
Design system and tokens, where they earn their cost
The other three, and what each one covers
Each answers a different question for Chicago businesses. None of them repeats this page.
AI Automation
The same product listed three times under different names
Shopify Development
Minimum orders and the price that falls at ten
WooCommerce Development
The major version upgrade everybody keeps deferring
UI/UX design questions from Chicago
Three questions about the subject above. How we work, what it costs and who owns the code are answered on the service page.
Should breadcrumbs reflect the route taken?
No. One canonical path per product, whichever way somebody arrived. A trail that changes depending on the route teaches the customer that the structure is not real, and it means two people describing the same product to each other are describing different positions in the same catalogue.
What is wrong with opening straight onto a grid?
It gives the visitor nothing to orient against. A sentence saying what the category contains, and how many items are in it, tells somebody whether they are in the right place before they start scanning, which is faster than working it out from the first six thumbnails.
What does a customer at the wrong product want?
Its neighbours. Somebody who has landed on nearly the right item is looking for the variation or the alternative, not the homepage, so the deepest level of the catalogue still needs a route sideways. Sending them to the top is asking them to repeat the search that nearly worked.
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Planning UI/UX design work in Chicago?
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