Spreadshirt · Case Study
Homepage Redesign
& Design System
Overview
Spreadshirt's homepage was the first page to migrate to a new headless CMS (Amplience): an opportunity to rethink content structure and UX from the ground up.
What started as module redesign work evolved into a full-scale rebrand: a complete overhaul of brand, positioning, and user experience, which I co-led as one of four designers with specific ownership of the design system.
Goals
- Improve homepage clarity for two distinct audiences: shoppers browsing ready-made designs, and creators customizing their own. Each needs a clear path in.
- Establish a modular component system to replace a developer-dependent legacy platform (BOB), giving marketing teams direct control over content updates.
- Reflect the new brand positioning across all touchpoints.
- Role
- Co-Lead Designer (1 of 4)
- Responsibilities
- End to end UX & UI Process, Design System
- Collaborators
- Product (PO and engineering), Business, Data Analysis, Research, Content Team & Marketing, Legal
- Timeline
-
Phase 1: Module redesign & CMS migration, Q4 2023 – Q1 2024
Phase 2: Full rebrand & homepage overhaul, Q4 2024–Q2 2025
The Challenge
By 2023, the homepage was showing its age: rigid for marketing, unclear for users. With two distinct audiences to serve (creators and shoppers), the page wasn't doing enough for either.
Business Needs
- Redesign the hero to support multiple campaign formats without sacrificing usability
- Convert both creators and shoppers, and reduce the business's reliance on paid acquisition for marketplace
User Needs
- Clear orientation between the two offerings: understand what Spreadshirt is and which path fits them within seconds
- A reason to explore beyond the first viewport, especially for shoppers
Problem to Solve
The homepage had two audiences to serve. It was barely serving one.
Research & Insights
To inform the redesign direction, I drew on behavioural data (heatmaps and click tracking), internal analytics (Adobe Analytics) and a Google CX audit of the existing homepage. Competitive benchmarking was also part of the research. Together these revealed a consistent gap: users arriving on the homepage couldn't quickly orient themselves or find a reason to engage beyond the fold.
High Recognition, Low Engagement
~99% of homepage traffic was brand-driven: users already knew Spreadshirt. Yet many were leaving without engaging, pointing to a page that wasn't meeting the intent they arrived with.
Content Below the Fold Didn't Exist
August 2023 heatmaps showed engagement dropping sharply after the main tiles: content below the fold was barely being seen. The hero CTA to the designer tool was well-used, but everything below it was invisible, particularly on mobile.
Content Inflexibility
The legacy CMS (BOB) gave the content team one fixed grid to work with. Any structural change, a new section, an additional module, required developer involvement, making the homepage slow to adapt to campaigns or new priorities.
Worse Experience on Mobile
Mobile users showed bounce rates nearly twice that of desktop: a consistent gap across the measurement period.
Competitors Analysis
More curated shoppable products
Trust & Brand UVPs
Baymard recommendations: carousel
Spreadshirt Heatmaps: starting point
Key Insight
Creators had a path. Shoppers didn't. And the business needed both.
Design Decisions
Before
Phase 1
Optimize First Viewport
The viewport was restructured to lead with a clear, functional first impression: maximizing the space between navigation and fold for visual impact and immediate orientation.
SEO Entry Points
Shortcuts to the site's highest-traffic landing pages are anchored above the fold.
Hero Slider
On mobile, the hero stays static. On desktop, slides rotate every 5 to 7 seconds and pause on hover, so users stay in control.
1st Iteration
2nd Iteration
3rd Iteration
Finale Phase 1
Phase 2
Rebrand & Build Trust
In Phase 2, the rebrand introduced a bold new identity across the entire creative journey. One structural shift: trust signals and core USPs moved above the fold, replacing the SEO entry that had held that position in Phase 1. At this stage, converting hesitant shoppers mattered more than capturing intent-driven traffic.
New Brand Colors
The colour gradient symbolizes the creative possibilities we offer customers through personalization, and core brand values:
Stronger Brand
Clarity
The long SEO text had outlived its purpose. User testing confirmed what was already apparent: many users were only aware of one path. Those who had used Spreadshirt to create from scratch didn't know they could also shop ready-made designs, and vice versa.
A concise, structured module replaced it. Two offerings, clearly presented from the start.
Before
After
Before
After
The Full Picture
The impact
With the move to Amplience, the new homepage delivered a measurable lift. CVR increased, driven by clearer structure, shoppable content, and direct topic entries that weren't possible in the old CMS. Drop-off rate improved by nearly 40% from baseline. For the first time, content below the fold was getting meaningful engagement.
Phase 2 launched as an A/B test. Early signals are mixed. Users are spending slightly more time on the page and U-turns dropped, suggesting the new experience creates less confusion. Drop-off rate increased marginally. The test was still running at the time of writing this case study.
Reflections
This case study focuses on the homepage but the reality was bigger: Phase 2 touched every page, across two years, with a team of 14 developers, two POs, three business directors, freelance collaborators, and requirements coming from SEO, content, marketing, and UX copy simultaneously. I was the consistent thread: the only designer who held the full picture of technical constraints, business intent, and user needs throughout.
In an ideal world, I would have worked from problems rather than solutions. Phase 2 often started with a direction already set by leadership. More time to go deep on specific flows, test them, and iterate would have changed the outcomes. Whether that's realistic during a major rebrand and full site refactor, I'm genuinely not sure. But it's what I would push for next time.