Root Diamonds

The diamond industry has a transparency problem — by the time a stone reaches a customer, its origin is untraceable and the landowners who worked for it have seen little of the profit. Root Diamonds is Fas Lebbie's answer: an e-commerce platform built on direct relationships with African landowners, cutting the mining companies out entirely. The design challenge was putting a face on a stone — making a purchase feel like a connection, not just a transaction.

At A Glance

One broken supply chain, one direct-trade model, one platform built to make it personal

Direct From The Land

Root Diamonds works directly with the African landowners who mine each stone, cutting out the mining companies that historically kept the profit.

The Transparency Gap

By the time a diamond reaches a retailer, its origin is untraceable and the people who mined it are invisible.

The Insight

If a customer is looking at a ring, they should see the landowner's face right next to it — his name, his land, his story.

Mapping The Supply Chain

The diamond journey was mapped from mining through value extraction, before a single screen was designed.

A Portrait On Every Page

Every product page pairs a diamond with the named landowner who mined it — a portrait and a story, not a sidebar.

The Outcome

A shopping experience that feels like a premium retailer and reads like a human story at the same time.

The Challenge

By Andy Lewis | Lead UX Designer | ThoughtCab

The diamond industry has a transparency problem. By the time a stone reaches a retailer, its origin is untraceable and the people who worked the land have seen little of the profit. Fas Lebbie, originally from Sierra Leone, understood this firsthand. His connections in the region allowed him to work directly with landowners — the people actually working the land — rather than through the mining companies that have historically captured most of the value. The landowners Root Diamonds works with reinvest their earnings back into their communities: infrastructure, clean water, schools.

The design challenge was making that mission feel real at the moment of purchase, not as a corporate values statement buried in an About page that no customer will ever read.

How We Did It

From a broken supply chain to a purchase that feels personal

Strategy & Insight

Working closely with Fas, the first step was mapping the diamond supply chain from mining through value extraction before designing a single screen. The journey map made the exploitation points visible and helped identify where transparency could be surfaced most meaningfully in the purchase experience.

The strategic decision was to integrate the landowner's story directly into the product listing rather than separating it into a mission section. If a customer is looking at a ring, they should see Denis Komba's face right next to it — his name, his land, his story.

Ground The Discovery

The discovery process mapped the community context, the supply chain actors, and the ethical gaps Root Diamonds was built to close — the research that made the strategic decision above possible, not just a formality before design started.

Build The Portrait Into The Product

User flows were designed to surface each stone's backstory at the point of purchase rather than after the fact. Every product page connects a diamond to the named landowner who worked for it, with a portrait and a brief biography alongside the product details — part of the product, not a sidebar.

Balance Premium And Personal

The visual design balanced premium jewelry conventions — clean layouts, editorial photography, restrained typography — with the human element that made Root Diamonds different. The result is a shopping experience that feels like a premium retailer and reads like a human story at the same time.

The Results

What a direct-trade, story-first design actually produced

Direct Trade

With The Landowners Who Mine Every Stone

Every Product Page

Paired With A Named Landowner's Portrait And Story

Live Since 2021

Shop The Live Site At
rootdiamonds.com

What could have been just another luxury e-commerce build became something rarer — a purchase that feels personal because it is. You're not just buying a stone. You're buying it from someone specific, whose name and face you know.

One project doesn't tell the whole story.

See More Work