Mountain Jade Case Study

Mountain Jade
case study

This case study outlines my work with Brave on the Mountain Jade website. I will touch on my role and responsibilities, the challenges identified, and the solutions I designed to improve clarity, usability, and overall customer engagement.

About the client

Mountain Jade, originally a small, family-run business in New Zealand, has grown into a leading producer of hand-crafted jade carvings. Uniting a team of skilled carvers across the country and collaborating with independent artists, they offer a diverse range of products. Their aim is to create exceptional jade products of the highest quality, connecting with customers worldwide.

Old and dated design

Mountain Jade’s existing e-commerce site was due for both a modernisation and a shift to a headless platform, creating an opportunity to refresh the brand experience.

Updated design system

I began by developing a new colour palette inspired by the natural tones of pounamu, using rich greens and earthy browns to ground the visual identity. From there, I explored typography and selected Recife for its carved, sculptural qualities that echo the craftsmanship of jade while still feeling contemporary.

I then rebuilt key UI components within an updated design system, refining layout, structure, and visual details to create a more elegant and modern interface.

Optimised variant selector

Each pounamu piece is carved from a unique stone, meaning no two items look exactly the same even if the shape is identical. To showcase this individuality, I designed an improved variant selector on the product page that lets users browse each stone option, zoom in on details, and choose the exact piece they want. This approach not only highlights the natural variation but also creates a more intuitive and satisfying selection experience.

Example on live site

Showcase sculptures

As part of the redesign, Mountain Jade wanted to give more focus to their sculpture range. These pieces are hand carved by artists and can reach very high price points, so they needed to stand apart from the regular products on the store. I designed a dedicated layout for the sculpture section, including a unique storefront and a different product page structure. Strong photography supported this layout and helped present the sculptures in a more premium and considered way.

Sculptures section on live site

Highlight artists

Every jade piece at Mountain Jade is handmade by an artist, and we wanted to bring these craftsmen forward in the experience. Each piece has a story, so the redesign focused on highlighting the artists themselves. This included a featured artist block on the homepage, a dedicated artists section with individual artist pages, and dedicated shop pages that display products made by each specific artist.

Artists section on live site