We led the redesign of Akademibokhandeln’s e-commerce experience from the ground up.
- Client
- Bokusgruppen, via Columbus
- Year
- 2024 – 2025
- Assignment
- Strategy
- UX design
- Visual design
- Deliveries
- Visual designs
- Design system
- Prototypes
Background
Akademibokhandeln is Sweden’s largest bookstore chain, offering books, stationery, and gifts through hundreds of stores and a constantly growing online presence.
We helped Akademibokhandeln already back in 2023 by running workshops and creating wireframes for this major rebuild. Since their existing platform was being scrapped, a full redesign was inevitable.
The overall goal was to create a smoother, more user-centered experience featuring single sign-on, clear delivery information, and true omnichannel integration — seamlessly connecting the online and in-store experience.
The challenge
Akademibokhandeln faced major challenges in rebuilding a large-scale brand site where nearly every function needed improvement. With a project of this size came high expectations — making collaboration and prioritization essential. And in a highly competitive online book market, getting things right from the start was critical.
The challenge
Clear communication and ease of use were key — from transparent delivery information and format options to password-free sign-in, synced in-store receipts, and one-click checkout. Another goal was to reduce customer service workload by making information self-explanatory, while ensuring the CMS made content creation easy for the staff.
Easy and contextual access 1
We chose to tuck away much of the information in flyouts, giving users quick and easy access to key details. This kept the interface clean and prevented information overload, while maintaining the user’s sense of context within the product and the site.
Easy and contextual access 2
The same UI pattern is used throughout the site, creating an intuitive way to navigate and access key information. These repeated interaction patterns help build user confidence and clarify what’s happening on the site.
Full order overview
We found that being open and transparent about order statuses — presented clearly and user-friendly — kept customers satisfied while reducing the workload for customer service.
The process
Bokusgruppen assembled a highly skilled yet compact team of technical consultants, project managers, testers, and developers, with our team leading the design process. Much of the groundwork had already been done in an earlier phase of the project.
Having access to deep internal knowledge — insights into the product, edge cases, and details only an experienced team could provide — proved invaluable in shaping a truly strong end result.
Great people, clear understanding, mutual respect for each other’s expertise, and everyone pulling in the same direction made this project a genuine success.
PLP and PDP
The PLP was designed to give users full control, with contextual navigation and filters in the sidebar. Curated selections, such as popular products, appear at the top, and each product card includes all relevant details without cluttering the page.
While product pages vary by type, the book PDP includes the most functionality. Users may preview the book, explore different formats, read staff recommendations and user reviews, access related campaigns and much more.
