After nearly a year on the project, Community Coalition has launched the new design for their website. I am happy that I had the opportunity to participate in this process. Despite the longer than expected timeline to complete the project, I gained valuable experience and learned a lot of things on my journey as the team’s UX and graphic designer.
Lessons learned
People come from different backgrounds and have different experience to bring to the table. Take advantage of this diversity.
When working with people, things can take longer than expected. But…
Be patient and enjoy the ride.
The organization knows their users best, or at least assume that they do, so trust what they tell you.
Be empathetic, even if you don’t think you can completely relate to the user.
Working together helps the overall understanding.
UX deliverables created
Wireframes
Personas
Interviewing stakeholders
Competitive analysis
High fidelity mockups
Process and user flows
Content inventory, analysis and strategy
Information architecture and taxonomy
Takeaways
You get out of it what you put in. If you put in more, you can get very valuable assets.
Be willing to learn from others. You learn more by keeping your ears open and mouth shut.
Keep technology in mind. Not all users are on a high speed device with quick internet access.
Do you best to get the organization to clean up items that are not being used on the site. Analytics is a great tool to validate this cause.
Try to tell the organization’s story. The more you learn about them, the easier this is to do.
For CoCo’s redesign, I examined a number of website that CoCo said was similar to theirs, as far as the organization, not necessarily the design. It’s very helpful to see what other organizations that are similar to yours are doing on their website. What CoCo particularly liked about Homeboy Industries‘ website was the prominent “Donate” button that was on every page and was sticky at the top of the screen as the user scrolled down through the content.
Though Homeboy Industries has a different focus, than CoCo, they can reach the same audience in some ways. Not to mention both organizations are based in Los Angeles.
Competitive Analysis of the website for Empower Los Angeles.
It’s competitive analysis time! As part of any redesign, not only is it important to understand what your website is doing. It’s also helpful to see what other organizations that are similar to yours are doing on their website. For CoCo’s redesign, I examined a number of website that CoCo said was similar to theirs, as far as the organization, not necessarily the design. Here’s what Empower LA have going on at their website.
I wanted to create more than one persona since there are a few groups that use the CoCo website. So a part of my Community Coalition of South LA Taproot project, or better knows as CoCo I am working on some deliverables to accompany the project. Based another one of the stakeholder interviews I performed this week, plus additional resources that were provided by the organization, I came up with this fitting Persona.
A good way to keep the CoCo project on track is to create Personas to always keep the website’s users in mind.
As part of my Community Coalition of South LA Taproot project, or better knows as CoCo I am working on some deliverables to accompany the project. Based on one of the stakeholder interviews I performed this week, and other resources provided by the organization, I came up with this fabulous Shelia Persona.
Jennifer Blatz explores the world of UX through words and imagery
After nearly a year on the project, Community Coalition has launched the new design for their website. I am happy that I had the opportunity to participate in this process. Despite the longer than expected timeline to complete the project, I gained valuable experience and learned a lot of things on my journey as the team’s UX and graphic designer.
