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.
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:
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:
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 was intended to change 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:
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 was designed to reduce 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
Outcome
I designed and built the site as a guided inquiry experience, structured to answer the questions customers asked most before they reached out. The owner has since stepped back from the business, so I don’t have long-term results to report. What the project taught me:
Much of the website contains the same core information previously available through Marketplace listings. The design bet was that reframing it within a guided, intentional experience would improve clarity, credibility, and professionalism. I couldn’t test that over time.
