03 WEB DESIGN
Engage Foundation for Research and Dialogue
YEAR
ROLE
2018
Website UX and UI
One of the earlier projects I worked on as a UX designer, at the time I found it tricky to navigate. Endlessly iterative, frustrating, and a steep learning curve. One of the bigger challenges was to rethink the brand image and identity. At the time, it was operational for almost two years wanting an identity makeover. The goal was for the new design to reflect the updated vibe, but also still maintaining its original essence
Starting Point
Process
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3 of the 5 users did not notice the vertical navigation bar on the left
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Abandoned the website fairly quickly
The starting point was examining the current website and some of the problems were fairly noticeable. The pages weren't grouped, each was isolated from the other, with no navigation buttons to shuffle between different pages. The messaging was confusing, and overall it was an overload; of information, content, and design.
I also conducted a quick usability test to find out the things that I'd have missed. I asked 10 participants to explore the website and got their feedback. Some of the things they said revealed that they:
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Felt overwhelmed
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Didn't know where to focus
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Felt frustrated that there was no navigation options
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Didn't think the colours and the design "makes any sense"
All of them said they still don’t know much about what Engage does.
As part of the redesign, I thought it made sense to create an online store and sell our merchandise on our website. It could then also be integrated with the Shehri app: users would collect 'Shehri points' on the app and use them as coupons for the merchandise on the web store.
Mockups
Reflection/moving forward
At the time I was too new in the field to really appreciate this, but one important takeaway for me was the importance of having a developer on board from the start of a project. And to have an understanding of HTML and CSS. I am now mindful of both whenever starting a new project.
Click here to visit the website.