Embedded Files
GPS Forum
GPS Forum
GPS Forum's mission is to equip small and micro-businesses with both monetary and non-financial resources to help them get set up and become competitive in the global marketplace.
SCOPE
Website Redesign
Code + publish new site
TIMELINE
April 2022 - May 2022
ROLE
UI Designer
This redesign project was scoped for six weeks and our team was tasked with redesigning the GPS Forum website. The goal of the project was to better tell their story, to showcase the impact they are having on their community, and to elevate their overall design. We set out to redesign the site, re-code it, and then publish the new site on a more reliable web platform.
One of our main challenges we looked at was how to build trust with a potential investor. We needed to design a site that would cater to a higher level donor and make them feel safe sending money through a website, while also building empathy for the small businesses they'd be supporting by telling their stories.
Our team was something really special, we met each other through LinkedIn! Rochelle put the word out there about this project and pulled the six of us together into our cohort of talented UX Unicorns.
We had a big enough team to separate out the UX Research and the UI Design roles. We did have some crossover and helped each other throughout the project.
As the research team began gathering insights on the user we would be designing for, I started with a content audit and heuristic evaluation of the website. The image to the left is the original homepage and I found many problematic areas throughout the site that created our backlog.
My first observation was that much of the content was disjointed and incoherent, making it difficult to parse out their organization's mission and goals. This did not appear to be a site anyone would feel confident sending money through.
HOMEPAGE BEFORE
HOMEPAGE LOW-FI DESIGN
This project only made it through the research and design audit phases, our team chose to close the project at this point. Our stakeholder started becoming erratic, and very difficult to reach and work with. He fired half of his team including our main project contact, then shortly after, the website was no longer visible online.
The stakeholder told us to continue working on the redesign and to hand over what we'd completed to date. We turned in our research and design artifacts, but decided not to continue working with him.
As a team we completed a Retrospective and reviewed the project from its start to where we closed it. We uncovered several red flags with the stakeholder's behavior that had started from our very first meeting. The site itself gave us pause from the beginning, but we proceeded under the assumption that it was primarily why we were hired.
Our biggest takeaway was to allow enough time for a sufficient discovery phase. To give time to thoroughly flesh out the problem space and project goals, and make sure our team is on the same page with the stakeholders before we start on any tasks or deliverables. We learned about creating detailed contracts and to make sure the scope is defined and agreed upon. Our final lesson learned was to pay closer attention to red flags and push back on things that don't sit right.
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