background

The owner, a physician, knew she needed a website, but did not know what content she wanted/needed on the website other than the address and phone number. We started with a kickoff meeting followed by several workshop sessions, using paper, pencils and sticky notes, to determine what the business needed. I began by understanding what their patients might need and what the client might want to communicate. It turned out that the client needed more than a website. Given the short time frame and the client’s busy schedule, we agreed to proceed with short, collaborative workshops. I worked outside of those workshops on all aspects of the project.

Throughout the project we met every week for approximately one hour. Between workshops, we corresponded through phone calls and emails.

objectives, requirements & strategy workshops

In one week, in a few 30 minute workshops using paper, pencils and sticky notes, we collaboratively defined the objectives and strategy. I facilitated a brainstorming session to elicit requirements. We then prioritized the next steps.

After this workshop I outlined my iterative design and research strategy which included: discovery research, requirements, competitive analysis, interviews, paper prototypes, wireframes, design, rapid iterative testing and evaluation, and development.

brand & mission workshop

The next workshop turned into a workshop about the brand, mission, strategy and target groups. This was not part of the original scope but the client felt stuck without having this worked out. I agreed to assist with this although it was not part of the original scope. After the brand workshop I designed three options for the visual style of the brand based on the client’s requests. These were sent to the client, discussed in emails, and briefly confirmed at the beginning of the next workshop.

requirements interviews

Given the short timeframe, I conducted short 15-20 minute interviews with 7 volunteers and 2 office staff members in one day. The data from the interviews was analyzed, presented to the owner, and integrated into the paper prototypes.

research & design workshops

In the following workshop we explored the findings from the competitive analysis and target group interviews. We then used sticky notes on the wall to collaboratively develop elements of the information architecture. Using paper and pencils I sketched low fidelity wireframes. In a subsequent workshop, using the results from the brand workshop, I presented three homepage designs with varying site styles. We collaboratively worked to refine the style, color scheme, typography, and logo. In the next session we reviewed benefits and drawbacks of Squarespace and Wordpress and the client chose to use Wordpress.