While working as a freelancer for Online Heroes, an agency specialising in helping luxury fashion brands develop their online brand success, I was responsible for leading the redesign of the online Belgium fashion store Terre Bleue
The following steps from the UCD process took place:
1. USER RESEARCH
User research consisted of exploring users’ behaviours, goals and pain points that exist within the current website. This was accomplished through web analytics and usability testing. The findings from these methods resulted in understanding users’ needs, problems and supported the next stage in the UCD process.
A variety of personas and user journeys were developed to represent users’ behaviours and expectations. This part of user research was invaluable to the design team and client as it retained the focus on users and their goals.
2. CONCEPTUAL DESIGN
Taking the needs of the user forward, the architecture of the website was examined. This involved developing a sitemap (drawn up in Adobe InDesign) based on the existing site and the research gathered. Drop-off pages from the web analytics were examined to prevent users from becoming ‘lost’ in the abundance of links available on the e-commerce site. Moreover, the improvement in the organisation of the content aimed to navigate users smoothly between the pages.
A variety of low fidelity wireframes of the entire website were constructed using the tool Balsamiq. Upon feedback from the client and reiteration of designs, I produced high-fidelity designs in Adobe Photoshop.
3. DETAILED DESIGN
Using the InVision tool a click-through prototype was produced to demonstrate to clients how the new website will look and perform. The tools Adobe Photoshop and InVision allowed experimentation with different concepts, aesthetics before implementation.
Production of responsive designs for mobile and tablet also occurred at this stage based on the high fidelity wireframes for the desktop site.
4. EVALUATION & DEVELOPMENT
A/B Testing was mainly conducted as part of the evaluation process, comparing different parts of the sites and making improvements. The new website can be viewed here: Terre Bleue