A successful start-up

I interviewed the main stakeholders (CMO & CTO) about their target market and current user base analytics. Using a variety of research methods such as an ecosystem map and a research questionnaire I was able to collect valuable data on:

• Competitors
• Target pain-points
• Target users
• Demographic data
• Preferences

Access to the GA dashboard of the current site allowed me to gather any useful demographic data to zero in on building the personas we want to target. Specific areas included:

• Age and Gender (basic demographics)
• Affinity secondary dimension to the Age demographic to reveal the main interests of our audience (shoppers’, ‘technophiles’, ‘foodies’, ‘music lovers’)
• In-Market Segments revealed connections with customers who are actively researching and comparing products or services across the Google Display Network (YouTube, paid search results via AdWords, display ads via AdSense, etc).
• Geo location tracking to reveal where in the would our audience is visiting us from.
• Audience devices revealed exactly which brand of mobile they’re using and even what service provider or operating system they prefer.

Secondary research online revealed other examples of specific buyer personas (IT decision makers) insights and motivations such as proof of his department’s investments provide value; a lightning-fast website, flexible and scalable products that grow with the company, no downtime or virus attacks, so the company stays productive—he’s done his job well. Content for this department head should be focused on how to implement new solutions.

Using a mix of human-centered design methods:

• Impact ladder worksheets helped to prioritize outcomes and align a successful and shared vision.
• Design principles to align themes and cluster them in a post-it note exercise in order to find common variables.
• Create a framework from bundled ideas to measure against design principled groupings and looked for variation in logic
• Concept creation based on answers from How Might We questions.

Low fidelity sketches were mostly internal organization and planning tools which would later become low fidelity wireframes to share with the team.

• Sketches were quick for internal ideation
• Once the design solution became evident, I moved onto wireframe proofs
• The main purpose of the sketches was to roadmap the design process before wasting time on a computer screen.

I ran prototypes through a variety of methods:

• Paper and pencil sketches
• Screen recordings
  
• Short video walkthroughs built in After Effects for the most important screens to get stakeholder approval before development.

Prototype testing was performed on pre-screened candidates arranged by the marketing team, consisting of user groups who interact with the previous site segmented by device and use case. The tests were carried out on a staging site prior to launch to look for bugs and discovered:

• Positive feedback on mobile with load times reduced by eliminating desktop feature art elements such as unnecessary photography.
• The mobile site read like a white paper but on a black screen for a no-nonsense, quick loading approach.
• Enlarging the spacial distance between links and buttons on mobile
• Crisp and colorful graphics/imagery

The pattern library was developed through an Atomic design structure distilled from the revised brand guidelines.

• I built components first and deconstructed them for reusable elements on other pages.
• Organic design was driven by predetermined elements and content.
• Inspired by Adobe's early design system to mirror continuity between the two brands as technology partners.
  
• We chose a dark theme to contrast from the first corporate iteration to something sleek and tech inspired, before it became a design trend a few years later.