Our company would like to re-design a website (not linked here) in our portfolio with a prototype. We launched our product 8 months ago, and while we were profitable within 3 months from launch, the feedback we received highlighted concerns about the confusion surrounding the process and the self-explanatory nature of the user experience (UX) components.

This will involve:

• Conducting competitive research for competitors in adjacent industries, and the current marketing offerings available. Our site is a trailblazer in a category that is not yet well established so there is an opportunity to make the experience unique and category defining. We are happy to provide a walkthrough and other resources to help bring them up to speed.
• Using heatmaps and usage data to identify key areas of our current website and what areas of focused might return the best results in a redesign.
• Learning and using various design and implementation tools. We strongly recommend students learn how to use Figma as this is the latest and greatest tool currently available. Our site operates on a lean-headless CMS setup using Elementor which follows similar design principles to Figma.
• Creation of a screen by screen UX / UI prototype of a 5 page types, with flexbox containers to maximize usability across devices. However, our audiences are ~89% mobile users so the design needs to primarily focus on the mobile responsive resolutions.
• Utilize real-user feedback to implement design for a diverse group of audiences, while replicating the best UX principles from case-studies of market leaders such as Airbnb, Ikea etc.

About the project:

Our organization introduced an aggregator platform designed to curate data from various online sources, enabling personalized recommendations from service providers in a highly competitive market niche. Currently, the landscape features only one significant competitor providing a comparable service. However, this competitor is not customized for the Canadian market, functioning more as a forum than an efficient aggregator.

Given the nature of our service, which involves incorporating visual testimonials, the significance of a visually appealing user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) cannot be overstated.

Adhering to design best practices is crucial in ensuring an engaging and effective platform. Moreover, considering our target market's limited technological proficiency, prioritizing information architecture becomes imperative for a seamless user experience.

By the end of the project, students should complete the following list of activities:

• Familiarize themselves with using web analytics softwares to lead their design with real-world data
• Design and build inside of the design tool (Figma or Elementor) all the needed screens for a redesigned prototype of our website
• Present the final design screens to us with the context of all their choices they made, problems they encountered, and next steps they recommend.

Bonus steps would include:

• Conducting any sort of user testing on the prototypes to ensure ease of use and to collect user feedback.

Final deliverables should include

• The design screens of the 5 page types and all assets in a shareable format
• Templated brand guidelines that incorporates the learnings based on competitive research and a hypothesis approach to color, design theme
• A presentation as stated above of the final designs

Students will connect directly with us for mentorship throughout the project. We will be able to provide answers to questions such as:

• Current product understanding
• Industry standard design tools and applications
• Input on choices, problems or anything else the students might encounter
• Feedback based on design and process