• UX/UI
  • January 2021 – April 2022
  • Rough Trade × Mirumee

RoughTradeRedesigning an indie-music legend — e-⁠commerce worthy of the culture

The shop and label that have been writing independent music’s history since 1976. With the Mirumee team I designed their new store: discovering music, choosing the format, listening before you buy, collections and Spotify playlists — all the way to checkout.

Role
UX/UI
Team
Head of Design — Iwo Rzepiela
UX/UI — Jakub Nowak, Paweł Janczarek
For
Rough Trade, with the Mirumee team
When and where
January 2021 – April 2022 · London
  • Side ADiscovery
  • Side BBuying
Drop the needle

Illustration: a record slides out of its sleeve and spins, its vinyl changing colour as in the variant picker — yellow, purple, black. Beside it, the shop’s home page scrolls by.

A1 Brief

A shop that sounds like Rough Trade

The brief: an attractive, intuitive and modern site that carries Rough Trade’s culture and values — and makes it easier to discover and buy music on vinyl, CD and cassette.

A new home page, search, navigation, format picker, mini-player, account, collections, Spotify playlists and checkout — and much more.

  1. A2PersonaA vinyl collector as the compass.
  2. A3Home pageSlides, carousels and a Spotify band.
  3. A4Immersive searchResults change with every letter.
  4. A5Menu and categoriesMenu layers in the shop’s colours.
  5. B1Format pickerThe vinyl changes colour on screen.
  6. B2Mini-playerListen before you buy.
  7. B3Customer panelOrders, details and Spotify.
  8. B4Wishlist and collectionsFollowed artists and a playlist.
  9. B5CheckoutCart, account, delivery, payment.

A2 Persona

For a collector, a record is an investment

People first: the needs, motivations, habits and preferences of those who buy music on vinyl, CD and cassette. Interviews and quantitative research produced personas — the compass for every decision, from navigation to how albums and artists are shown.

  1. Goals

    Owning limited editions, caring for a unique musical experience, celebrating the unboxing.

  2. Challenges

    A real gem is hard to get, premieres are easy to miss, and albums get lost in a big collection.

  3. What we can do

    Propose vinyl from Spotify, take the collection digital, offer a release radar and similar artists.

  • A community of music enthusiasts
  • Visual setting
  • Collects like stamps - gathering
  • Fulfilling childhood dreams
  • Nieprzewidywalność
  • The highest quality medium
  • Vinyl is an investment

Liam Archer, 33Collector of vinyls

Background

  • Barber shop owner
  • Alternative
  • Reluctant technique
  • He lives in a historic tenement house
  • Married, 2 children (10 and 8 years old)
  • He loves live concerts
  • Playing the guitar
  • Audiophile
  • He goes to the mountains on vacation
  • He looks for solutions in the future, and for values necessary to make changes in the past.
  • vegan, ecology oriented
  • dissatisfied with what is
  • dogs’ owner
  • esthete
  • prefers bicycle and public transport

Goals

  • It looks nice, there are nice covers
  • Owning limited items
  • Caring for a unique musical experience
  • Collecting records
  • Show off your unique prey
  • Keeping the perfect playlist in the barber shop
  • Realization of attachment to your favorite artist
  • The unboxing ritual
  • CD playback ceremony
  • Broadening your musical horizons

Challenges

  • Getting a real gem is almost a miracle
  • I miss premieres that interest me
  • I have such a huge collection that I forget some albums
  • I love Cage the Elephant, I want all their records
  • Share your sneak peak with others
  • Discovering the discs that interest me is difficult and time-consuming
  • I sometimes listen to music from the net, but it’s not the same as vinyl
  • Being unique and having unique things

What can we do

  • Based on Spotify’s suggestions, propose vinyls
  • Take collecting to digital
  • Filtering by disc features: Acousticness, Danceability, Energy, Instrumentalness, Liveness, Speechiness, Valence
  • Similar artists
  • Your favorite songs 2020
  • Animated vinyl covers
  • Vinyl club - subscription
  • Time capsule
  • Release radar
  • Music genres map
  • Gamification
  • Personalize the background based on your mood + recommendations

Marketing Messaging

Become a music trendsetter

Elevator Pitch

We provide an intuitive platform that knows your taste and will provide you with vinyls you will love - on their release date.

Quotation

“The only right carrier for Jazz is vinyl”

“I want to feel like I’m in the place where it was recorded live”

“Ahh … it’s a nice record. Such a black swill with red inserts (…) quite stiff, audiophile 180 grams”

“Vinyls are an investment, not a purchase.”

“To buy or not to buy? But this is an opportunity, and if I don’t buy it later, I won’t lose it. However, it is worth doing”

Common caveats

  • FOMO
  • I buy records that lie in foil for weeks and wait for their day
  • Internal struggle, whether to buy it or not, but if it does not happen later, I will lose it.

The board is in English, as in the project; the portrait is a drawing.

A3 Home page

Sleeves that invite you to dig

The home page invites you to explore categories, genres and artists. You quickly find what interests you, add it to the cart or save it for later — and the carousels show a wide range without scrolling the page or switching tabs.

  1. Release slides

    The sleeve with its vinyl beside it, a short line on the edition and “Pre-order now” with a preview.

  2. The Spotify band

    Connect your account and the shop prepares recommendations from your taste.

  3. Carousels

    Pre-orders, Rough Trade Edit and Exclusive — with a wishlist heart and a preview on every sleeve.

Try it

#Rough Trade PodcastsRough Trade Edit Podcast 24 with Django Django
UK / US
  • New this week
  • Pre-orders
  • Limited edition
  • Books
  • Merch
  • Hardware
  • Sale
  • Genres
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Club

Flock of Dimes

Head of Roses

Indie Exclusive Yellow Vinyl.Limited to 500 copies.

Discover your new music

Learn more

Now we can prepare the best recommendations for you based on your music taste from Spotify.

Preorders

See all
Endless ArcadeTeenage Fanclub
Head of RosesFlock of Dimes
G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!Godspeed You! Black Emperor
ChangeIzem & K.O.G
Avant GardeningNew Age Steppers
KronaEvigt Mörker
One Take in the BoothFabe
Meta-MessageKirsty Hawkshaw

Rough Trade Exclusive

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

Limited to 500 copiesNumbered. Comes with a 6 Panel poster - 36 inches by 24 inches

Rough Trade Exclusive

See all
When the Lights GoTotally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Low stock

Inner SongKelly Lee Owens

Sale

Avant GardeningNew Age Steppers

Low stockSale

EP2Rote

Low stockSale

Dawn ChorusJacques Greene
Fear of ProgrammingMarcel Dettmann

Low stock

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

A4 Search

Results that grow with every letter

The search takes the whole screen and shows new content with every letter you type: the best result, the artist’s albums, records, artists, tracks and in-store events. No empty screens — before you type, your recent and popular searches are waiting.

  1. One letter

    Albums, artists and tracks with a word that starts with it.

  2. Best result

    From three letters on — the artist and their best albums on top.

  3. Events

    Gigs in the Rough Trade shops when the artist is playing soon.

Type it for me

Recent searches

Popular searches

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

A5 Menu and categories

A menu that uncovers music in layers

The new menu leads to music by genre, format, artist and label. Every level slides in as another layer in the shop’s colours — black, pink, yellow — and “New In” shows a recommended record’s sleeve, as in a vinyl shop.

  1. Browse

    Genres, labels and the Dance wall on the pink layer.

  2. Genres

    Eleven genres on the yellow one — from rock to reggae.

  3. New In

    What’s new in music and books, and a recommended record.

Free UK shipping on orders above 60 GBP

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END!

Discover your new music

Learn more

Go to a layer

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

Side BBuying

B1 Format picker

Feel the vinyl before you buy it

The product page shows every variant: vinyl in different colours, CD, cassette or a digital file. Pick your favourite and the vinyl on screen changes colour — a smooth, realistic animation that makes you feel you are holding the record.

  1. A variant with its price

    Every variant is a row with its price; opened, it shows the colour, exclusivity and the run.

  2. The colour on the disc

    The vinyl slides from behind the sleeve in the chosen edition’s colour — and the CD is silver.

  3. The run at hand

    “Limited to 300 copies (less than 50 left)” — a collector knows how many are left.

Choose a variant

UK / US
  • New this week
  • Pre-orders
  • Limited edition
  • Books
  • Merch
  • Hardware
  • Sale
  • Genres
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Club
  • Albums of the year
  • Electronic
  • 2020

Kelly Lee Owens

Inner Song

Smalltown Supersound

  • Limited Edition Warp Purple
  • Rough Trade Exclusive
  • Limited to 300 copies (less than 50 left)

Released 18/12/20, Catalogue Number STS372LPC3

Kelly Lee Owens’ masterful second album Inner Song finds the convention-blurring techno producer and singer / songwriter diving deep into her own psyche—excoriating the struggles she’s faced over the last several years and exploring personal pain while embracing the beauty of the natural world.

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

B2 Mini-player

Listen before you spend

Many people stream a record before buying it on vinyl. The mini-player does it in the shop: listen to the record, check it suits your taste — and get back to shopping without leaving the page.

  1. Preview tracks

    The player rises from the bottom of the screen and stays as you scroll.

  2. Tracklist

    Opened, it shows the album, the tracklist and a slider.

  3. On to the album

    “Go to album” and “Listen on Spotify” lead on.

Jamie xx

In Colour

LPx2+£23.99
  • Limited Edition Warp Purple
  • Rough Trade Exclusive
  • Limited to 300 copies (less than 50 left)

Try it

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samplesThe player is silent — only the slider moves.

B3 Customer panel

An account that knows your taste

Once you sign in, the customer panel manages your orders, details, addresses and payment methods. Link the shop account with Spotify — and get recommendations that match your musical taste.

  1. Orders with sleeves

    Every order shows the records, not just a number and a total.

  2. Linked accounts

    One click links the account with Spotify; a window in Spotify’s colours confirms it.

  3. Addresses and cards

    A default delivery and billing address, and a default card.

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

The Spotify link works across the page: the home page’s band and the collection’s playlists see it too.

B4 Wishlist and collections

A collection that plays on Spotify

Add records to your wishlist, and follow artists and labels so you never miss a release or a sale. Recommendations follow your preferences and purchase history — and one move turns the collection into a Spotify playlist, so you can hear the albums before you buy.

  1. Four tabs

    Wishlist, collection, following and recommendations — with filters on the left.

  2. A playlist from albums

    Tick the albums available on Spotify, name the playlist and send it.

  3. No new password

    Without a linked account, the shop first asks to connect Spotify — “no brain fail”.

How a playlist is made

  1. Create playlist
  2. tick the albums
  3. Create
  4. a name
  5. Send to Spotify
UK / US
  • New this week
  • Pre-orders
  • Limited edition
  • Books
  • Merch
  • Hardware
  • Sale
  • Genres
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Club
  • EP2Rote

    £9.99Low stock

  • Inner SongKelly Lee Owens

    £23.99

  • Endless ArcadeTeenage Fanclub

    £9.99Low stock

  • Avant GardeningNew Age Steppers

    £9.99Low stock

  • KronaEvigt Mörker

    £9.99

  • Meta-MessageKirsty Hawkshaw

    £9.99Low stock

  • One Take in the BoothFabe

    £9.99

  • ChangeIzem & K.O.G

    £9.99Low stock

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

B5 Checkout

From the cart to “Thank you” in four steps

Once records are in the cart, checking out is simple and intuitive: an account or a Spotify sign-in, the address, the delivery speed and the payment. Plus a discount code or a gift card — if you have one.

  1. A side cart

    “Add to cart” opens the cart beside the product page — with the quantity and the subtotal.

  2. An account on the way

    Sign in by e-mail or with Spotify, sign up in one window.

  3. Delivery and payment

    Three delivery speeds with prices, card payment and the basket’s summary alongside.

Checkout steps

  1. Product
  2. Sign in
  3. Address
  4. Delivery
  5. Payment
  6. Done

UK / US
  • New this week
  • Pre-orders
  • Limited edition
  • Books
  • Merch
  • Hardware
  • Sale
  • Genres
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Club

Smalltown Supersound

EP2

Rote

1
  • EP2RotePurple LPx2+1£9.99

Subtotal£9.99

Shipping and final taxes will be calculated at checkout

The customer, addresses, cards and covers are samples

B6 Boards and recordings

Sleeves from the project

The case study’s boards and flow recordings. On the persona board the portrait is a drawing, and on the orders board the customer’s name is a sample.

Rough Trade, Spotify and the names of artists, albums and labels belong to their owners; they appear as in the shop’s mock-ups. The sleeves on the shop’s screens are drawn in code.