Five years is a long time in e-commerce. Paperless Life started on Etsy, grew into its own Shopify store, went through a complete relaunch on Storefront 2.0 — and has been evolving ever since. What emerges is not a finished project but a living system: constantly balancing information density against clarity, emotion against conversion, what works today against what scales tomorrow.
Process
2019/2020
From Etsy to Shopify
Initial launch of the standalone store following Etsy distribution. Building the foundational store architecture, product page structure and first collection pages.
Ongoing
Product Page Optimisation
The balance between information density, trust-building, emotion and conversion — iteratively refined. Hick's Law as a constant design principle: every additional option comes at a cost.
Ongoing
Collection Pages
SEO content, tag-based sub-navigation, integration of meta-information such as Sale, Coming Soon or Sold Out — collection pages as a UX challenge in their own right.
Ongoing
Differentiating Digital and Physical Products
Different user expectations, different purchase journeys — design and implementation of differentiated page and product structures, plus custom pages for special content like tree-planting projects and About pages.
Relaunch
Storefront 2.0 & New Theme
Complete relaunch on Shopify Storefront 2.0: new theme, revised architecture, modernised UI.
WIP
In ProgressProduct Customiser
Users configure their product step by step, guided visually throughout, able to share their result and order directly. The challenges: storing variant data beyond Shopify's limits, avoiding cognitive overload from the breadth of choices, ensuring the right download link reaches the right customer after checkout.
WIP
In ProgressNavigation Overhaul
A historically grown, complex navigation — user signals show confusion. New approach: differentiating between product-specific and needs-based navigation, clear wording, intuitive hierarchies, self-orientation through breadcrumbs and clear structures.
Methods
Balance as Design Principle
Information density vs. clarity, emotion vs. conversion, today vs. scalability — e-commerce design is permanent negotiation.
Systems, Not Pages
Not individual features, but a coherent store architecture that holds over years and grows with the business.
User Signals as Compass
Heatmaps, analytics and direct user feedback steer priorities — the data shows what gets optimised.
Understanding Shopify as a Platform
Know the technical limits, work around them creatively — from the variant limit to theme architecture.
Visuals
Product page — structure and hierarchy
Collection page — navigation and meta information
Custom page — tree project
Customiser WIP — current development state
Paperless Life has been a running project for over five years — not a closed case study, but proof that good design is never a one-time event. It's a process. The store grows, the requirements grow, and the system grows with them.