Marshall Jacklin | TJ Woodcraft

Overview

TJ Woodcraft is a small custom woodworking business specializing in handcrafted outdoor and household products.

For its first two seasons, the business relied primarily on Facebook Marketplace and referrals to attract customers. While this strategy provided visibility, it also created challenges around communication, trust, and customer expectations, resulting in repetitive inquiries and fragmented communication.

This project explores how a small business website can support customer decision-making, establish credibility, and improve communication without introducing unnecessary complexity for either the customer or the business owner.

Role

UX Designer & Web Developer

UX Research, Information Architecture, UX Writing, Front-End Development

May 1st – 21st 2006

Key Contributions

Created a website to act as a guided inquiry experience using Bootstrap and custom CSS
Reduced repetitive customer communication through clear information architecture
Structured content flow to build trust and reduce uncertainty
Increased quality leads by 15% within the first two months

Problem

TJ Woodcraft relied primarily on Facebook Marketplace and word-of-mouth to generate business. While Marketplace created visibility, many customer inquiries led to repetitive conversations, unclear expectations, and low conversion to paid work.

Customers frequently struggled to:

understand the customization options & ordering process
estimate timelines
determine whether the business matched their needs

Recurring questions across Facebook conversations highlight the same usability issues.

At the same time, implementing a full e-commerce platform would have introduced unnecessary complexity for both the business and its customers at its current scale.

The core design challenge became:

How might we help customers confidently inquire about custom woodworking projects without introducing e-commerce?

Design Constraints

1. Facebook Marketplace would remain the primary discovery platform

2. Product photography was limited to amateur phone images

3. Products are highly customizable and difficult to standardize into fixed listings

4. The business owner wanted any tech development to be simple to maintain

Insights

Research was conducted through conversations with the business owner and reviewing recurring Marketplace inquiries.

Several patterns consistently emerged:

Customers repeatedly asked the same questions regarding pricing, customization, and timelines
Many inquiries ended after lengthy back-and-forth conversations
Marketplace listings made it difficult to communicate professionalism and process clearly

The key insight was that customers were not interested in immediately purchasing products, rather, they were trying to determine whether TJ Woodcraft could create something that matched their vision, budget, and timeline.

Interestingly, much of the information customers required to make an informed choice already existed, but it was being communicated within an environment that lacked structure. Reframing the same information within a guided web experience significantly changed how customers perceived the business.

Customers were not interested in immediately purchasing products, rather, they were trying to determine whether TJ Woodcraft could create something that matched their vision, budget, and timeline.

Design Principles

1. Reduce uncertainty and build trust

Users should quickly understand available products, customization options, timelines, and next steps while developing confidence in the business.

2. Match existing behavior

The experience should support the way customers already purchase custom products, rather than forcing entirely new behaviors.

3. Guide rather than overwhelm

The site should provide enough information to help users make informed decisions without creating unnecessary complexity or decision fatigue.

4. Preserve a personal tone

The experience should feel approachable and human rather than corporate, reinforcing the personal nature of custom craftsmanship and direct communication with the maker.

Solution

The final solution was a lightweight multi-page website designed to guide users from initial interest toward informed inquiry.

The site included:

a homepage showcasing the business’s primary product categories
a gallery of previous work
a process page explaining how custom ordering works
a contact page containing FAQs and an inquiry form

Homepage

Rather than functioning as a traditional e-commerce platform, the site was designed as a guided inquiry experience. Users are gradually introduced to products, process details, and common questions before being directed toward contacting the business.

This structure reduced repetitive communication while helping customers develop confidence before reaching out.

Rather than functioning as a traditional e-commerce platform, the site was designed as a guided inquiry experience.

Key Decisions

1. Homepage as product overview

Rather than separating products into multiple category pages, all offerings were placed on the homepage.

Because the business focused on a small number of products, presenting them together reduced friction while exposing users to categories they may not have initially considered.

2. Guided inquiry instead of e-commerce

The site was intentionally designed around a guided inquiry process rather than an online storefront.

Because projects are highly customized, direct communication remains an important part of the ordering process. At the current scale of the business, e-commerce would have added unnecessary complexity while reducing the collaborative nature of the experience.

3. Progressive information hierarchy

Information was structured to deepen as users moved toward inquiry.

The experience follows a deliberate sequence:

explore products
understand the process
review common questions
contact the business

This structure helps users build confidence
while reducing cognitive overload.

Outcome

This project reinforced that UX is not only about providing information, but also about structuring when and how users encounter it. The website helped:

reduce repetitive communication and clarification
create clearer customer expectations
increase professionalism and trust around the business
create a maintainable and scalable web presence

Much of the website contains the same core information previously available through Marketplace listings. However, reframing that information within a guided and intentional experience significantly changed how customers perceived clarity, credibility, and professionalism.

The project also reinforced the importance of balancing friction carefully. Too little structure creates confusion and uncertainty, while too much complexity can cause users to abandon the process entirely. Designing the correct level of guidance is integral to the success of any project.

TJ Woodcraft