UI/UX Design: Website Redesign
Research, Strategy & Design
Introduction
For quite some time, I felt that my online portfolio was a bit confusing and not indicative of the work I do or am capable of. I fell victim of what I see too often with other websites and user interfaces, I was trying to do too much and not focusing on the needs of my audience. I had to realign the purpose of my website for the end users and their needs.
Which meant;
- Research interviews
- Synthesizing information and data
- Creating wireframes and mockups
- Rebuilding and reorganizing my website
Getting Started
I noticed quite a bit of contact form submission dropoff. I was receiving roughly 1 or 2 legitimate requests a month for freelance work. As well, I knew my website did not provide enough information or show the breadth of my professional work; as confimed by a high home page bounce rate (73%) and roughly two pages per user session and each session lasting a little more than 1 minute. Additionally, I was using my website to try and produce extra work for myself. I knew I needed to redesign the website, but wanted to make sure that I was focused on my end users.
That meant;
- Estalishing personas from reviews, research and interviews
- Creating a strategy for the layout and userflow for the website
- Making the portfolios easy to filter and review
- Provide end users with pertinent information on my work and an easy way to contact me
Research & Strategy
To start the research part of my project, I asked three former colleagues to review my website and identify areas that needed imrpovement. After those initial reviews were performed, I asked 3 other friends with no experience in UI/UX or web design to review my website. Finally, I asked two friends who work as recruiters to review my website for their input. From those 8 individual reviews, coupled with my analytics data, I was able to synthesize the information provided and establish a strategy for my website.
My four main goals for the new website were;
- Focus your website as a portfolio only and leverage your brand aesthetic
- Make sure there are easy ways to filter your portfolios
- Show more of your diverse skills and talents, don't limit your portfolio to one discipline
- Provide a link to your LinkedIn profile for easy reference
The Process
- ALL PROJECTS
EM Reviews
User reviews for synthesizing information to create personas and strategy
EM Personas
Developed user persona profiles for website strategy and design
EM User flow
User flow strategy to engage website users with website
EM lo-fi wireframes
Lo-fidelity wireframes for synthesizing data into a design
EM mid-fi wireframes
Website home page desktop and mobile wireframes
EM hi-fi mockups
High fidelity mockups for use during development
EM UI Kit & Patterns
UI patterns and styling samples screen shots
Results
While the new website has only been launched for two months, initial numbers with Google Analytics show an increase in pages/session, session duration and a decrease in home page bounce rate.
Increase in pages/session and session duration
User behavior across pages shows users are interacting with more web pages
Get in touch
I work as a freelance designer in all of the above fields. If you’d like to discuss a project in more detail, feel free to drop a line. I love talking design.