Marian Baker
Role: Senior UX Designer (Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Visual Systems, E-commerce)
Product: Artist portfolio and e-commerce platform for collectors and galleries
Context
Marian Baker is a world-renowned ceramic artist whose work is collected internationally. As she transitioned from teaching full-time to focusing exclusively on her studio practice, her website needed to shift from a blog-style presence to a professional digital gallery and storefront that reflected the caliber of her work.
The existing site, built on WordPress.com, was visually dated, difficult to maintain, not mobile-friendly, and constrained by platform limitations that made selling work online cumbersome and increasingly expensive. More importantly, it failed to communicate Marian’s stature as an artist or provide a clear, intentional path for collectors to view and purchase her work.
The primary audience for the redesign was collectors and purchasers, with secondary consideration given to galleries, press, and the broader community of artists Marian supports through her Yarmouth and Islesford studios.
Problem Framing
While the request was framed as a redesign, the core problem was one of positioning and usability, not aesthetics alone. The original site functioned more like a personal blog than a gallery or storefront, creating friction for users who arrived with the intent to browse and purchase finished work.
Key issues included:
- No clear hierarchy guiding visitors toward viewing or purchasing work
- A visual presentation that diminished the perceived value and craftsmanship of the ceramics
- Public visitor comments on the homepage, which undermined the tone of a professional gallery
- Poor mobile experience
- Platform limitations that made content management and e-commerce difficult for a non-technical user
The challenge was to create a site that elevated Marian’s work, supported sales, and remained maintainable by the artist.
Approach
The redesign centered on treating the website as a digital extension of Marian’s physical gallery experience—quiet, intentional, and focused on the work itself.
I led all decisions around information architecture, interaction design, and visual system, with Marian providing content and feedback on presented options.
Key design decisions included:
- Work-first hierarchy: Removing blog-style elements and visitor comments to reinforce the site as a gallery and storefront, not a conversation space.
- Intentional pacing: Using restrained layouts, generous white space, and controlled image groupings to allow each piece to breathe without obscuring paths to purchase.
- Focused interaction design: Designing product pages with a primary image and supporting thumbnail views, allowing collectors to explore form and detail without visual clutter.
- Clear purchase affordances: Ensuring that pricing and purchasing options were always accessible without competing visually with the artwork.
- Maintainability: Migrating to WordPress.org to reduce platform constraints and implementing a structure Marian could update independently, with most technical maintenance handled automatically through plugins and updates.
Throughout the process, decisions balanced aesthetic restraint with usability—ensuring the experience felt calm and gallery-like while still supporting clear task completion.
Outcome
The final site presents Marian’s work with the clarity, confidence, and professionalism expected of a world-class artist. It supports direct sales, scales with new work, and allows Marian to manage content independently without technical friction.
Most importantly, the site now reflects how her work is experienced in person: focused, deliberate, and uncompromised. Marian actively shares the site, uses it as her primary sales platform, and relies on it as a credible digital counterpart to the galleries that represent her work.
