Superbalist
Year
2013
Type
Web
Role
Lead Designer
Superbalist transformed from a flash sales site to South Africa's leading curated marketplace for youth culture in 2013. As Lead Designer, I led the complete UX and visual redesign, applying the new brand identity and creating design foundations that remain largely in use today.
The redesign drove explosive growth: 1 million members within a year, 100,000+ social media followers, Takealot acquisition in 2014 and successful iOS and Android app launches in 2015.
The approach
Working closely with Co-Founder Luke Jedeikin, I developed an elegant, minimal interface that highlighted the products while informing the art direction for photography and content.
My process included:
Conducting UX audits of the existing site and competitor analysis
Designing 75+ responsive templates across desktop, tablet and mobile
Creating scalable design patterns built on the Bootstrap framework
Collaborating with remote development teams in Cape Town and Bolivia
Homepage
The homepage was redesigned to prioritise product discovery through a streamlined navigation, prominent search and highlighted content including Lookbooks and Collections.
Key features included:
A Trending Now live feed showing real-time member activity to build social proof
Featured products alongside up to 100 daily shops
Filter & Find
Comprehensive filters enabled users to navigate the product catalog by category, designer, size, colour, price, shipping speed and popularity.
Departments
I designed the department landing pages, including best sellers, new arrivals and shop sections to improve category-specific product discovery.
Product Page
The product detail featured large imagery and a cross-sell component to encourage product discovery.
Art On Demand
The Art department was South Africa's first online art-on-demand offering, featuring over 80 artists from around the globe.
Orders & Payment
The checkout experience featured an improved shopping cart, orders page, customised shipping and gifting options.
Visual Assets
I created an icon library featuring social proof elements, shipping badges, and product status indicators to drive conversions across the platform.
Email Templates
I designed 32 primary and transactional email templates, extending the new design language to support the site's daily email-driven traffic strategy.
Credits
Product Designer - Joëlle Snaith
Creative Direction, UX - Luke Jedeikin
Developers - Matthew Goslett, Neil Garb, Nic Appleby, Mauricio Balderama
Logo Design - Shaun Bond