Parasol – Performance Luxury Rugs & Textiles
Project Type: Custom Website Design & Development
Platform: Wix Studio
Role: Web Designer, Developer, UX Strategist
Duration: 6 Weeks
Client: Parasol Performance
Overview
Parasol is a premium brand specializing in bespoke, hand-woven luxury rugs and textiles engineered for high-performance indoor and outdoor environments. Their products are designed with aesthetics, durability, and craftsmanship in mind — catering to high-end residential, hospitality, and marine design professionals.
Parasol approached us with the goal of refreshing their digital presence to align with the elegance and resilience of their products. They needed a website that would both showcase their extensive catalog and convey the value of performance luxury — all while making the experience seamless and intuitive for interior designers, architects, and discerning homeowners.
Goals
Elevate the brand identity through clean, luxurious design
Build a responsive product catalog with custom filtering
Enhance trust through detailed product storytelling
Simplify the browsing experience for designers and professionals
Support future login-based pricing and sample requests
Position Parasol as a leader in the performance luxury segment
Design Strategy
✦ Visual Identity & Mood
We crafted a refined, minimal interface inspired by Parasol’s product philosophy — luxury that feels effortless. The visual identity focused on:
Soft neutral tones to reflect warmth, craftsmanship, and timelessness
Large, airy layouts to let product textures and detail photography breathe
Typography pairings that balanced modern luxury with editorial sophistication
Interactive product hover states to subtly indicate motion and tactile depth
This design system was applied consistently across the homepage, product catalog, and detail pages to create a cohesive, elevated brand experience.
UX Approach
✦ Mobile-First Product Experience
Given that many clients would view the site on mobile or tablet while on-site or in studio meetings, we designed with a mobile-first mindset:
All filters and sorting tools were collapsible and thumb-accessible
Large image carousels for swiping through rug textures and patterns
Smart product grid that adjusts across screen breakpoints from 320px to 1440px
Sticky CTAs like "Request Pricing" or "Log In to View Price" on smaller screens
✦ Catalog Design & Interaction
Parasol offers dozens of customizable rug styles across different weave types, making categorization and discoverability a UX priority:
Introduced collection-based filtering (e.g., Flat Weave, Hand Knotted, Pile & Flat)
Added "Custom Made to Your Specifications" tags across all product tiles
Used hover previews to reveal product details without page reloads
Created dynamic product detail templates to accommodate various rug types, sizes, and applications
Information Architecture
We restructured content around user intent:
“Shop the Collection” leads visitors directly into browsing
“Crafted with Care” educates about SDA technology and the hand-woven process
“Applications” subtly addresses residential, hospitality, and marine clients
“FAQs” were written to answer industry-specific concerns, like UV resistance, warranty, and indoor/outdoor use cases
Microinteractions & Performance Cues
To build trust and elevate experience:
Custom tooltips and hover interactions explained weave types and fiber tech
Loading skeletons kept catalog performance smooth across devices
Sample CTA buttons subtly animated to guide flow
All product pages included animation-free zoom and swipeable mobile previews for speed
Challenges
1. Communicating “Performance Luxury”
The term was new to many users. We had to position it as both aspirational and functional — without overwhelming first-time visitors. This was solved through:
Editorial-style hero sections with immersive photography and messaging
Placing the "3-year no-fade warranty" front and center in key scroll sections
Combining emotional (lifestyle) and technical (UV resistance, bleach cleanable) content in a digestible flow
2. Pricing Transparency vs Exclusivity
Since Parasol works with custom dimensions and trade-only pricing, product pricing wasn’t publicly displayed. To maintain engagement:
“Custom Made to Your Specifications” messaging was used on product tiles
Login-only access to pricing created a sense of exclusivity while encouraging professional account creation
Integrated future-ready functionality for gated sample requests and quote submissions
3. Large Product Catalog
With over 70+ rugs and multiple variants, performance and organization became a priority:
We modularized the product grid using dynamic data from CMS collections
Smart sorting (Featured, New, Alphabetical) helped reduce visual fatigue
Scalable design allows for future expansion with minimal rework
Key Features
Fully responsive, mobile-optimized design
Modular product catalog with collection-based filtering
Login-gated pricing and future-ready wholesale support
Custom CMS product templates for each rug type
Brand storytelling through immersive visuals and editorial layout
Speed-optimized with lazy loading and performance-first media compression
Results & Feedback
While the project is still in its early launch phase, client feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The new website successfully communicates the core values of Parasol: elegance, performance, and craft. Early trade users praised the intuitive catalog browsing and quick-load galleries, and the brand now has a robust foundation to build out eCommerce or sampling features in future phases.
Final Thoughts
Designing Parasol was an exercise in restraint — letting the product speak, while ensuring the website performed just as elegantly. Every design decision was grounded in the balance between function and beauty, creating a digital platform that reflects the premium nature of the brand while staying easy to scale and manage.