__Overview
Website Re-design
Currently, the company is running on a very old website and would like to upgrade it. The assignment is to portray the company in a professional new light in regards to the aesthetics and functionality of the website.
DELIVERABLES
Design a website that reflects and is:
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What they believe in and stand for.
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Esthetically pleasing.
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In line with the preferences of the owner.
ROLE
UX Researcher and Designer
TEAM
Product Design Team
TOOLS
__Personal Objectives
Show Empathy and Creativity
I want to expand my portfolio by adding a project that shows how I listen to my clients, their values and beliefs and apply those in the project. This can show how flexible I am in making my designs and decisions.
Reliability and Accountability
I want to practice keeping to strict deadlines that I set for myself. This will help me practice more professional attitude which will reflect reliability for future projects I do.
Improve Communication
I want to be able to communicate properly from my side. In previous projects I think I held back a bit on my own opinions as a designer which effected the end result in a negative way. I want to learn to speak up for my ideas in a way that is professional and received in a way that is comprehendible.
__Schedule and Proposed Evidence
I will keep a by-weekly Design Journal which will include:
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A brief description of what I did those two weeks.
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The time I spent in those two weeks. Whether I made or did not make my deadlines.
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The objectives I did good on, the ones I struggled with and should improve (Evidence of this will be in the description of what I did those weeks.)
Schedule:
Start Date: 07/09/2020 - Initial Orientation (10hrs)
Start Date: 21/09/2020 - Market research + Inspo Boards (10hrs)
September 30: Show and tell presentation with the client.
Start Date: 05/10/2020 - Discussing and Showing results and Defining Direction (15+hrs)
Start Date: 12/10/2020 - Working with client on information (text & images) displayed + Layout (15+hrs)
Start Date: 26/10/2020 - Build + Finish Website - finishing touches (20+hrs)
Start Date: 09/11/2020 - Final Reflection (12hrs)
__My Process
I used the Desing Thinking Process used by the Interactive Desing Foundation. Starting with the empathising phase and followed by the defining and ideating phase. Finally, the prototyping and testing phase. This process is rarely a straight line and can go on forever. I ended with the prototyping phase and evaluated the usability of the website with the client and her employees.
__Innitial Orientation
Understanding the clients needs
In the initial orientation, the client told me the values of her company and what she wanted the company to represent. I asked her about what target groups she had in mind and if there is a certain aesthetic she was interested in. The client explained that she just wanted a simple website not to invite more customers necessarily but just kind of an information page where people can learn about the company and the fruit it sells, the values, amongst other things. She walked me through some of the info from her old website and what she wanted on the new one.
OUTCOMES THIS WEEK
Company Values
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Love and respect for nature
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Respect for local communities
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Importance of health
Target Groups
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Current clients
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Consumers who wish to know more
Personal Reflection
At first, I was very happy that someone was giving so much creative freedom for something so important. Though the first problem I ran into is that I am not a coder, so I need to use a website builder. The one, my client, was using was horrible to use and gave little to no creative freedom.
__Market Research + Inspiration Boards
Getting creative
After struggling with the website and finding ways how to design around it, I decided that it would be good to see what was already on the market. I asked my client to go on a meeting with me where I asked her about any preferences she might have in regards to how she wants her website to look. She gave me some ideas by sending me some inspiration she had. To understand better what she wanted, I asked her to describe the feeling, emotions, any related worlds that she could think of when thinking of her company. This helped me in setting a tone. After discussing these things, I started looking into her competitors and what their websites look like to have a comparative look.
__Discussing and Showing Results (Defining Direction)
During this first weeks call, I was able to settle all the gimmicks related to which website builder to use and costs, my client agreed with my decision so we could move forward. Then next step for me was to discuss with my client what exactly she wanted on the website in terms of content, so that I could start drawing some low-fi prototypes. We started by just listing out what tabs she needed and what each tab entailed. She spoke about things that are very important to show and how she wanted to do this differently than her last website.
OUTCOMES THIS WEEK
Low-Fi Prototypes
Personal Reflection
During our second week’s call, I showed her some low- fi wireframes for the website and, she seemed enthusiastic and happy with them. The problem came when she didn’t have any text ready or pictures… This was a problem for me as I needed them in order to start creating a higher fidelity prototype.
__Working on Website Content (Text and Images)
Although I didn’t get the text I needed to make a higher fidelity prototype I decided to go ahead and do it without the text anyways. This is so my client could better see what I had in mind during this weeks call. During the next two weeks, I finished making more med-fi prototypes and arranging the text into place.
OUTCOMES THIS WEEK
Mid-Fi Prototypes
__Final website design (2020)
After finishing all the last touches on the med-fi prototype, I translated them onto the first version of the final website online and showed this to my client. I started the design a week later than planed because I had exams the week before which I was unaware of at the time of making my scheduling for this.
__Two Years Later
Recently the client contacted me for a separate Project which I will share soon, and I decided that I no longer liked the final website I had made 2 years prior. So I took it upon myself to have a look at my research and re-design the website. The website is still not fully completed but you may see the progress made at:
