Project Description: The goal of the project was to condense the two original sites and optimize the information and users experience to increase usage.
Who was the client, what was the brief?
The client was the Friends of Greystone Mansion, the business entity of Beverly Hills Greystone Mansion. The goal was to improve the user experience of the site and make it more user-friendly.
My Role in the Project:
As the facilitator of the project, I led group meetings working with everyone’s schedules to get deliverables in by the stated deadlines. One main aspect that was important was keeping the project direction on the right course as it can be easily veered off. I was also one of two lead designers, along with Abby Ra. With valuable information given to us by our researchers Christian Chavez-Aguilar and Patricia Ayala, Abby Ra, and I developed a working desktop and mobile prototype of the redesign.
Problem:
Information is hard to find and both sites are hard to navigate. Users often gave up when trying to obtain tickets to visit or book for an event, lowering sales.
Insight:
Through our research, we found a great user experience leads to good retention and conversion rates.
Process UX:
Audit Results of Both Greystone Mansion Sites
Site Audit:
First we conducted an audit on the two existing sites, in short finding that the user experience was poor while having information that doesn’t lend to conversions.
User Testing/Personas:
From there we conducted user tests on the two original sites, solidifying our findings on the audit. We then developed personas based on our user tests and journey maps of their experiences.
Low Fidelity Wireframe:
Based on our personas' needs and avoiding rough spots from their journey maps we then developed a low-fidelity working prototype.
Final/High-Fidelity Wireframe:
With this low-fidelity working prototype, we held a usability test to work out all the navigation hurdles and bugs. Now that the final bugs are ironed out, the final high-fidelity prototype was made.
Key Aspects: Simplistic navigation bar to streamline users direction, search bar, cart, profile, and clear plugins that showcase aspects of Greystone Mansion.
Results:
The final prototype was given great praise by the stakeholders. Key features include an optimized navigation menu with a priority on the most searched topics and topics important to stakeholders, a search bar, a google calendar plug-in, and an accessibility tab. The design was to emphasize the beauty of Greystone Mansion as a location and use imagery of the location to reinforce it.
Reflection:
Redesigning Greystone Mansion was a fantastic experience and a successful project. The overall quality of the working high-fidelity product will lend well to the ease of implementation to its final form on the web. I would love to take part in the final steps of its implementation.
