Sweet treats: a website tailor-made for women and children

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Cupcake: the online redesign of a budding landmark in Charleston, SC

Charleston, South Carolina is regularly named among the top US destinations, most recently winning accolades from Travel + Leisure magazine, the New York Times, and TripAdvisor... and Cupcake, a mouth-watering specialty bakery located on downtown Charleston's premier shopping boulevard, is increasingly on the list of sights to see. Cupcake, which also has locations in Mount Pleasant, SC and downtown Columbia, SC, has itself been featured by the likes of Budget Travel, USA Today, the Ellen Show, MTV, Southern Living, Time Out New York, and a slew of local publications.

For the redesign of the Cupcake website, founder and owner Kristin Kuhlke was clear on what she wanted: a website highlighting the bakery's scrumptious wares and a nostalgic feel. She also ordered up a page focusing on her firm's "Yesterday's Cupcake" program, which gives back to the Charleston community through food donations to non-profits.

We satisfied the first requirement with large photos of individual cupcakes on each page, plus a "flavors" page with thumbnails of each cupcake flavor. For extra delight, visitors can click on any thumbnail to view a large, mouth-watering version accompanied by a description of the key ingredients used... a feature popular with women customers. (Kristin updates the bakery's online list of flavors each season, with new recipes making appearances each spring, summer, autumn, and winter.)

For colors, we expanded on Cupcake's signature pink and chocolate brown with splashes of a pale buttery yellow and pear green, and dashes of red. Together with the custom "picnic polka dots" background, they capture the burst of childhood nostalgia biting into a cupcake can bring.

A simple scroll function keeps the focus on the visual design, hiding extra text until it's needed; a false bottom cues visitors to scroll down using the candy sprinkle-themed arrows. Simple photographs of chocolate shavings, cinnamon sticks, and other edible items in the upper right corner of each page's content area, meanwhile, bring to mind the quality of the natural ingredients Cupcake uses in its baking.

The result? Soon after we launched the redesigned website, Kristin reported receiving fantastic feedback from customer and others, including calls from people looking through the website to decide what to order. She has since used the website to feature seasonal specials and announce upcoming store openings, and her new online store has resulted in sales of Cupcake-themed apparel and other items, including her famous Cupcake gift tokens, which make wonderful client gifts—we can't deny we've been repeat customers!

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