Challenge: 

Research user behavior to create a new site that is user-centric, visually attractive, and mobile-responsive

Key Insight: 

I used Google Analytics page view data to redesign the site so that visitors can find important information quickly, and less valuable content doesn’t get in the way.

CLIENT PAIN & project goals

For this project, I was the client. Our old site was hand-coded in HTML and CSS, and the basic layout had not changed in ten years. Since this business is a side project, we needed a system that would allow us to spend time updating content, not maintaining code.

The primary intent of the redesign was to create a fresh layout that was more visually attractive throughout, yet less time-intensive to maintain. It had to respect modern usability principles in general and the goals of our audience specifically. We also required the new design to be mobile-responsive since the old site displayed poorly on the mobile devices that over 50% of visitors were using. 

research & design process

Content on the old event sites was broken up into multiple stand-alone pages. I studied behavior flow and page view data in Google Analytics to determine the appropriate size and placement of each section in a new single-page layout.

For example, the most popular page on the old site was an interactive photographic listing of participating artists. I made this the largest section in the redesign and placed it near the top since this was the first or second place that users wanted to visit.

final design 

I used Squarespace to create a modular site for easily updating content and adding new events. Formerly segregated content is now combined into single pages that respect users' preferred behavior. The visual design showcases artists' work throughout, clearly communicating the look and feel of our events. And the site is fully mobile-responsive so that it looks beautiful to all visitors, regardless of the device they use.