UX Upgrade: Small Business Website

The owners of a beachfront rental wanted a better user experience for guests visiting their website. Keeping the limitations of their CMS in mind, we provided a design that is welcoming, informative, and easy to use. This project also included branding.

Problems this design update solved:

• Branding: The site had no branding apart from the property address. The owners want to build a brand and expand their rental company with other properties. We worked with them to develop a brand and domain name and designed their logo.
• Navigation: The low-contrast color of the navigation bar was difficult to read and failed accessibility standards. The navigation also exposed a few more problems with the site, one of which was the lack of a strong call to action. The call to book a stay was hidden under Contact, which led to a form that mixed general inqueries with booking in a way that was unclear. In addition to resolving the accessibility issue, we created a separate call to action for Booking with a bold button and also repeated the booking form on the homepage.
• Homepage: The homepage itself felt more like a property description as the only content was a list of amenities. We moved this description to a separate page and created a homepage design that highlights reasons to book (like location and activities) and also brings the booking form to the forefront.
• Content development: We also researched and wrote some new content, including a new page, Things to do, which suggests local attractions and entertainment venues for guests.

Mobile: Before & After

Dashboard Design: State Government Site

Anyone who has ever registered a business with the state of Virginia knows how confusing and frustrating the State Corporation Commission website can be. In this personal project, we tackled the Clerk Information System Dashboard and brought some order to the chaos.

Problems this design solved:

• Header: The only way to know which state the site represents is to look up at the url. Virginia is never mentioned on the page. The addition of the state abbreviation in the site logo is minor but it helps identify the authority behind the page right away. I chose a more appropriate icon for the account button (formerly a "settings" icon) and moved "Profile" from the navigation to the account menu. I also added a help button to provide access to help and resources when users leave the dashboard.
• Navigation: The "navigation" bar above the dashboard is a mix of things and not really representative of the site hierarchy; it is more a collection of links to relevant information and tools. I reduced it to actual navigational links and distributed the rest to more logical places. Help and FAQs moved to the header beside shopping cart, Profile to the account menu, and Online services became a toolbar at the top of the dashboard. These services are the main reason people come to the site, and this arrangement gives them more exposure and emphasis.
• Dashboard content: A dashboard should give users a well-organized, curated view of important information and features. The current CIS dashboard hides everything in a disorganized list of accordion drawers. Nothing is available at a glance. I created widgets to display important content and tools, including services, notifications, the user's business entities, and a summary of orders currently in the user's shopping cart.

Note: We invested about 8 hours in this speculative project and based these changes on personal experience with the CIS dashboard, heuristics, and standard ux principles. Much more research, thought, and collaboration would be needed to deliver a production-ready design.

Mobile: Before & After