A cone with your brand logo on it? A safety vest with your crew's name across the back? We built a tool just for you.

Overview

Traffic Safety Store offers lettering and stenciling customization on traffic cones, helmets, barricades, safety vests, and more. They also take pride in getting 99% of orders out the door on the same day.

The Problem

The manual system for customizing products relied heavily on back-and-forth email communication and phone calls. Customer service representatives often discovered issues like incorrect file formats or low-quality images a day later, causing delays in shipment. Customers on job sites found the constant communication interruptions frustrating and inefficient.

Traffic Safety Store's customers value quick shipping, quality products, and ease of use. The manual process failed to align with these expectations, as any delay on getting the shipment to a jobsite risks losing that customer for good.

UX Research Begin

Our Main Customers for The Customizer

I found several of our customers who previously ordered custom cones and products from Traffic Safety Store's website. I conducted a 20 minute zoom interview on what they look for in their customization process. Although Traffic Safety Store has a wide variety of customers across many different industries,, we focused on 3 core groups that ordered custom cones the most. We created personas based on these interviews.

Small Business Owner

Brand Manager

Graphic Designer

The Solution, Based on Feedback

Cut out the middle man and give complete control to the customer by allowing them to design their products live on the website, much like Custom Ink.

• Developed a responsive customization module for both desktop and mobile users.

  Enabled seamless uploading of logos, text editing, and real-time proofing with intuitive controls.


• Integrated Cloudinary to support color and file management, enhancing the customization experience.


• Provided error guidance and easy access to customer service for troubleshooting, ensuring usability.

The Design Process Begins

Step 1: Userflow

Step 2: Wireframes

User and Business Feedback

Upon testing wireframes, engineers researching what is technically possible, and the C Suite redefining their goals, changes the User Flow and UX were made.

• Change “Silkscreen” to “Single Color”

• Have customers select between “Single Color” and “Full Color” on Product Detail Page.

• No “Lettering” in V1. Integration will be considered in V2.


• Change “Lettering” to “Position”, and allow customization on multiple sides of the product.

• Add controls: “Remove Background”, “Reduce Borders”, “Photograph”, and a reset button.


• Do not have buttons hang off the side bar.


• Make the module full screen. Add phone number and chat now information to navigation.

• Replace “Save Design” with the “Quantity” and “Add to Cart.”

Step 3: Updated user flow

More designs were taken to finish by the user when the flow was streamlined.

Step 4: Hi Fidelity Prototype

See full figma file here

KPI's Met!

• WOW! Achieved a 20% increase in custom orders within the first month post-launch.


• Earned customer recognition for top-tier user experience, reflected in multiple 5-star ratings.


• Positioned the company as an industry leader in customization, driving brand trust and loyalty.


• UI/UX elements easy enough to use in our back end and software products

• Traffic Safety Store had to buy a new sublimation printer to handle the demand (whoops!)

Customer Reviews Received

"Great experience! Custom cones were excellent quality, ordering was quick and easy, and shipping was fast. Our lawn company couldn’t be happier!

-Rob, Green Chomper Lawn Service New Port Richey, Florida

"The packaging was perfect and the custom lettering was great. This will work fine for what we need."

-Reviewer121011148 Beverly, Massachusetts

Awesome.....Custom printed cones and a cart delivered within a week.....winner winner traffic cone dinner?

-Reviewer628798573

Have ordered from Traffic Safety Store several times in the past. Website is easy to use. Fast turnaround on customized safety cones. Quick shipping.

-Reviewer1823262460

Reflection: One big oversight

Such success is worth celebrating, right? Who wouldn't want a higher increase in sales than expected?

In focusing so hard on creating this new tool for customers, we forgot to factor the print shop's capabilities with keeping up with orders. 100's of custom vest and cone orders came flowing in. We had old printers from the 80's, and two of them broke down almost immediately.

It was a good problem to have, but next time, I learned that while it's important to keep the customer experience front and center, it's important to analyze ALL processes of an order (business needs). Perhaps there would have been a better way to make sure the print shop was prepared.

Curious? Design your own cone.

Here