Context
Wana Prime is a Tanzanian consumer business with a product good enough to sell on its own merits — and a previous web presence that did not let it. The old site was busy in the way that small-business sites get busy: every feature crammed above the fold, every promotion shouting at once, photography squeezed into thumbnails. It worked against the product instead of for it.
The brief was confidence. A premium product needs a site that behaves as if it has nothing to prove — generous space, restrained type, and photography given room to breathe. The job was less about adding and more about removing, until what remained was the product and a frame worthy of it.
A premium brand earns attention by withholding noise. The site's job is to be quiet enough that the product becomes the loudest thing on the page.
Decisions
01
Decision
Make photography the protagonist.
Product images are not garnish here — they are the layout. Full-bleed, high-resolution, and given the largest share of every screen. Type, navigation, and commerce arrange themselves around the photography rather than competing with it.
02
Decision
Build an editorial typography system.
Rather than one font doing everything, the site runs a small, deliberate type system — a display face for moments that should feel considered, a clean body face for everything that should simply read well. The result feels closer to a magazine than a storefront.
03
Decision
Slow the scroll on purpose.
Generous spacing and unhurried section transitions make the visitor move through the site at the pace of a catalogue, not a feed. Slowing the scroll is a way of signalling value — premium things are not rushed.
Outcome
Wana Prime now has a site that matches the product it sells — calm, considered, and built to make a first-time visitor take the brand seriously. The photography leads, the type supports, and nothing on the page is fighting for attention it has not earned.
2025
Built — Next.js + Vercel
Editorial
Typography system
Product-led
Every layout
Structural placeholders. Replace with Wana Prime's real figures — engagement, conversion, time-on-page — once available.
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
- Vercel
What I’d do differently
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I would have set photography standards before the build, not during it. A product-led site is only as good as its worst image. We worked with what existed; locking a shoot brief and resolution floor up front would have lifted the weakest pages.
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The slow scroll needs a fast path for returning buyers. The unhurried pacing is right for discovery but can frustrate someone who already knows what they want. A quicker route to purchase for repeat visitors would respect both audiences.