Freelance UX/UI Design Consultant • User Research & Analysis • UX/UI Designer
Substitute Photo of Andy Knight by MedicAlert UK on Unsplash
PROJECT BRIEF & MY ROLE
At the time of engagement my Client was coming to the end of his contract with a current
long-term Client, so there was a tight deadline to have a working website to show potential
clients, and secure new contracts.
My Client essentially needed an Online CV and point of sale for his consulting skills. His
current website was not fit for purpose and desperately needed updating and modernisation.
Conversion Rate Optimisation techniques were used to help land more business, so we had
to find out what was going wrong quickly and make the changes in the tight time scales we
had available to us.
Working alongside an experienced Project Manager, I was the sole UX/UI Design Consultant
on the Project. In conjunction with the Project Manager, we used an Agile Project Management
working in weekly Sprints to deliver the initial minimal viable product and then iterations. The
Client was engaged throughout the process until final approval
Specifically, I performed all the UX/UI tasks needed to be completed for the site and participated
in the stakeholder meetings alongside the Project Manager throughout the month-long
Project.
For the Entrepreneur and small businesses alike being able to get their name and the services
they offer out to Recruiters and Clients through a good website is essential in securing
business and earning a living. When I was approached by the Client his website was confusing
and unfocussed. There was no visual hierarchy and the images being used were incongruent
with his Primary and Secondary Goals.
On this project I increased traffic to the website by 30%, that helped secure clients for the
Business Owner. I did this by redesigning his existing Business Development Website, aligning
it with the Primary and Secondary User Goals. The information architecture, as well as the
content, were overhauled including an overall UI Redesign.
It started with the Project Manager and I engaging with the Client, performing a stakeholder
interview to gain a clear understanding what was required. During the interview we were told
that the project had to be done with a minimal budget and that we would have to use
123-Reg.co.uk, an Online Website Creator Tool for the Website, as this had already been
paid for.
In the beginning the Client was very vague about his needs, saying he just wanted a website.
So we needed to really drill down to uncover his requirements, and to understand his Primary
and Secondary Goals - this was to be an online CV for ‘Push’ traffic, as well as a point of sale
for people had done a Search. There was also a need to maximise the number of visits to the
site, who would then go on to contact my Client about engaging his services.
The next phase was Competitor Benchmarking and looking at other Business Development
Websites using the best practices already established in that field.
I also reached out and conducted a series of telephone interviews with Recruitment Agencies
to gain a clearer understanding of what they were looking for from people with a similar
specialism.
These research findings informed the presentation I had with the Client and the Project Manager
at the end of Week One. Working together we created a plan to organise and produce a rough
draft at the end of Week Two and have a completed Design by the end of Week Three. For
the last Week, once the Client had seen the finished product, any changes that needed to be
made were then addressed, before the project was finally signed off at the end of Week Four.
Week Two began with work on an Affinity Diagram, arranged and organised by me and
carried out with the Project Manager. We pooled together our respective notes, organising
them into logical groups and a Customer Journey Map. It was at this stage that I had to
research the various Templates on offer on the Website Creator Application the Client had
purchased, so they could be aligned with our goals.
Once it was established that the software package could successfully represent the information
in the way that was needed, the user Interactions were established - e.g., what was their Intent;
Which Controls they would be faced with; What actions they would take; The rules behind
the action; Any feedback they would receive; And the end result.
This information was synthesised with the Conversion Rate Techniques. Although the Website
would be a CSS on One Page, I could still design each section so that it focused on one
purpose only. Excessive information was omitted, reducing the amount of content needed
at each stage. The calls to actions were made to stand out as much as possible, with the
background of the site mostly in black and white, punctuated by images and bright splashes
of colour when a button needed to be pressed.
It was agreed that everything was on the right track at the end of Week Two.
Week Three was the build stage of the project, where I utilised the Atomic Design Principles
on the Client’s Website. Using a Template from the selection on offer I input the Clients
information into the website, where the Atoms and Molecules were arranged together into
Organisms on the web page.
This part of the Project was probably the quickest and only took a couple of days to finish
the first draft, and an extra day to have a final version to show the client. Due to busy
schedules we corresponded by email up until the 2nd to last sprint. There were only a few
modifications and these were all noted, and made ahead of the final meeting the next
week.
Week Four was the last week, and there was minimal amount of work to be done before the
final handover of the website to the client. All of the changes the Client wanted were done
and the project was delivered with three days to spare.
Once the work on the Project was finished the Project Manager and I went through what
went well, what could be taken forward into subsequent Projects, and what could be done
better next time.
After the Website went live there was a 30% increase in traffic to the site. More importantly
the Client secured a new engagement from a Business Owner that had seen his Website and
was looking for someone who could provide his services to their business.