Sonasetu - Customer

Step 1. Overview & problem statement

• What is Sonasetu
  Sonasetu is an eCommerce platform for the Indian jewellery market that bridges the gap between online discovery and offline trust. Customers can browse jewellery designs available across nearby local shops, explore each shop's live portfolio, and book a visit slot to physically verify and purchase combining the convenience of digital browsing with the confidence of in-person buying.
  
  

• The problem
  Jewellery is one of the last major categories where customers still hesitate to buy online and for good reason. Trust, authenticity, and the desire to see and feel a piece before purchasing make traditional eCommerce a poor fit. At the same time, local jewellers had no digital presence to showcase their inventory. There was a clear gap between what customers wanted to browse and what shops could show them.

  
  

• My role
  Founding designer. I owned the complete UX strategy and customer-side design from initial research through to the final UI handoff.

Stage 2. Research & design strategy

1. Research & interviews
   Started with in-depth interviews with both customers and the founders understanding how people currently shop for jewellery, what makes them trust a shop, and where the existing process breaks down. The biggest insight was consistent: customers wanted to discover online but needed physical verification before committing to a purchase of this value.

2. Business & market research
   Alongside the UX research, I worked with the founders on business positioning analysing competitors, identifying gaps in the Indian jewellery eCommerce space, and defining the brand value Sonasetu needed to establish. This shaped not just the UX strategy but the marketing direction and how the product would be positioned at launch.
   
   

3. Strategic direction set
   Design for trust first every screen had to make the customer feel secure before asking them to act.
   
   Local-first approach surface nearby shops and real inventory, not generic catalogue browsing.
   
   Reduce friction to visit the booking flow had to be simple enough that scheduling a shop visit felt effortless.
   
   Brand built on authenticity the visual identity needed to feel premium yet accessible for the Indian market.

Stage 3. UX flows, wireframes & iteration

• Mapping the flows
  Before any wireframing, I mapped the complete customer-side application flows — from landing and jewellery discovery, through shop portfolio browsing, to booking a slot and arriving at the store for verification. Every step was pressure-tested against the core question: does this build or reduce trust?
  
  

• Hand-drawn wireframes
  Wireframes were hand-drawn deliberately low-fidelity to keep the focus on structure and flow rather than visual detail. This made iteration faster and kept conversations with the founder focused on experience decisions rather than aesthetics. Multiple rounds of refinement were done on the wireframes before moving forward, ensuring the core journey was solid before any UI work began.
  
  

• Design system
  Once the wireframes were approved, I built the complete design system defining the colour palette, typography scale, component library, and spacing system. Every token was set with the product's premium-yet-approachable brand positioning in mind, creating a consistent foundation for the UI that followed.