Putting information where it belongs. Right there!

Client: 
Duration:  Ongoing
Deliverables:  Sitemap, Icons, Font pairings.
My Role:  UX Consultant - Information Architecture & Visual Design
​CHALLENGE:  The purpose of this project is to increase call-ins and effectively inform customers of services and inventory.  The website for this small business has not been updated since Y2K, complete with animated gifs and a tiled background.  There is a large amount of content that also needed to be organized and prioritized, while still capturing WWS as a personal business.
SOLUTION:  Advise owner on Wordpress template choice, layout style and content management as well as visual advisement and create custom icons.  Limited funding made for harsh prioritization in the process.
WHAT I LEARNED:  Create more documentation.  The more documentation there is, the better communication can be between Designer and Client, Designer and Developer and even Client and Developer.

RESEARCH & PLAN

THE MEETING OF THE CHAD(D)S
Before anything, I interviewed the owner of WWS, Chadd Berry, about his business, focusing on goals, what current pages were accessed most and what people primarily visit his site for.  The first thing I was asked to do was evaluate various pre-made templates for the website.  ​

IA DAY (Information Architecture Day)
Chadd and I got together and had what I called our "IA Day".   We spent a day together with card sorts, building proto-personas and working out the global navigation of the site as well as understanding the scope of the project for the projected launch date.  Chadd interacts with his customers directly, so I relied upon his knowledge to understand the different types of users we were designing for. 
Picture
Proto-Persona: Dan Shepherd
REVISION 1
Already, just by implementing the move from the old site to the new site made a world of difference.  It is cleaner and more unified in its appearance.  There is a clearer hierarchy of data and navigation is more visible.

VISUAL DESIGN

SKETCHES
​One of the most wonderful things about saxophones, other than their iconic sound, is the decorative nature of the horn.  The challenge was to bring in elements from the Art Deco and Art Nouveau eras while not contrasting too much with a modern site.
VECTORS
There were a few iterations of these vector graphics, and I'm sad to say some of my favorites were not used because they just didn't fit.  Chadd was very happy with the results, though.
FINAL VECTORS / REVISION 2

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

Currently the website is being updated with the assets provided and the suggested edits to the layout and design.  There is still much to do, but the first round is finished, the second round is being implemented and the third round has just begun.

I am starting to create a usability study for the site and use Google Analytics to gather data.  More fun to come!