Re-design series
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1 min read
Local refresh: Barbican Flowers
In this series, I’ll be re-designing the websites of small local businesses to improve usability, enhance the user experience, and create a stronger digital presence.
In part 1, I help Barbican Flowers blossom with better UX.
Barbican Flowers is a local florist based in the Barbican area of London. I came across their website and was impressed by the range of bouquets they offer — but noticed a number of UX issues that could affect conversion, accessibility, and trust.
Areas for improvements
I focused solely on the homepage and identified three key areas for improvement: navigation, accessibility, and overall design.
Overly complex navigation
The site’s top navigation includes six primary categories: 'Bestsellers', 'Birthday', 'Occasion', 'Weddings', 'Funeral', and 'Autumn'. However, three of these are occasions themselves, thus overlapping the options. Within the “Occasion” dropdown, there are a total 40 subcategories, duplicating the main nav and burying other services they offer deeper in the hierarchy.
This inefficient structure increases cognitive load and makes it harder for users to understand where to go, particularly for those with cognitive impairments. Not only this, but they are unintentionally hiding some of their services, such as gifts and wreaths, within a complex and overcrowded sub navigation.
Accessibility concerns
I could tell from a first glance that the website had accessibility barriers, but only after exploring using assistive technologies such as a screenreader and magnifier was I able to see the significance of the issue. What I uncovered was:
No keyboard accessibility: The site is almost impossible to navigate using a keyboard alone, as there are no visible focus states — unless a screen reader manually compensates for this, it’s unusable.
Dropdown menus are mouse-dependent: The navigation dropdowns can’t be accessed via keyboard or screen reader, making them completely inaccessible without a mouse.
Zoom behaviour is unstable: At 300% zoom or higher, the site switches to a burger menu, but its contents jump around while scrolling, making it hard to read or select any options — especially those lower down the list.
Missing alt text for key content: While product images do have alt text, there are several images containing important text (e.g. “Order by 6pm for same day delivery”) with no accessible alternative, which may exclude screen reader users.
These issues make the homepage difficult, or in some cases impossible, to navigate for users with visual, motor, or cognitive impairments.
Overall design
The overall design of the homepage feels dated and lacks the visual refinement users now expect from online shopping experiences.
Compared to competitors like Bloom & Wild or Haute Florist which use modern layouts, subtle styling, and strong brand presence, Barbican Flowers risks appearing less trustworthy or professional.
While the products themselves are high quality, the design doesn’t reflect this, which could impact first impressions and ultimately affect conversion rates.
Re-design highlights
I redesigned the homepage to be more modern, accessible, and user-friendly without straying too far from the original brand.
The new hero section highlights the services offered in a 3 card grid and uses high-quality images with intentional white space, creating a more premium first impression.
I simplified the navigation, reducing it to four key categories: Bestsellers, Occasions, Wreaths, and Gifts. This helps users orient themselves quickly without cognitive overload, while still surfacing the most important content.
Further down, I introduced a streamlined bestsellers section with an option to view all, followed by a “Why choose us?” area that reinforces trust and makes their value proposition more explicit.
The result is a cleaner, more focused homepage that’s easier to navigate and more aligned with what today’s users expect from an e-commerce experience.
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