Reshaping the Blick Art Store: A Journey of Information Architecture Redesign
Get ready for a colorful and insightful journey through the transformation of the Blick Art Store's online platform! With a dash of humor and a whole lot of creativity, we'll take you through the story of enhancing user experience.
Project Background
Blick Art Store: Where Artistry Meets Technology
Blick Art Store, a renowned haven for art supplies and resources, beckons to artists and educators, both online and in physical stores nationwide. However, with evolving user expectations and technological advancements, it became apparent that an architectural makeover was to elevate the overall user experience.
Time Frame
Two Months
Tools Used
Our Toolbox of Creativity
Figma: Our canvas for wireframing and design.
Miro: The collaborative space where ideas flourished.
Optimal: Our guide for UX metrics and insights.
Zoom: The stage for remote testing and collaboration.
The Team
My Role
As part of this creative trio, I had my hands in various aspects of the project:
Analyzed existing architecture and finalized content inventory.
Contributed to card sorts and tree jack testing.
Delved into data analysis for card sorts and tree jack tests.
Crafted wireframes to visualize our vision.
Offered insights and feedback on sitemaps and wireframes.
A Trio of Creatives
In our team of three, we each donned multiple hats, working harmoniously to create a masterpiece.
The Creative Challenge
Unleashing the Potential
Blick's online store, a treasure trove of art supplies and resources, was in need of a makeover. It faced challenges that included:
Information Overload: The website suffered from an abundance of information, making even simple tasks arduous.
Low User Engagement: Valuable resources like artist profiles and educational videos were underutilized.
Complex Navigation: Navigating through the store was akin to an artistic maze, with convoluted categorization and inadequate filtering options.
Mobile Responsiveness: In the age of mobile shopping, the website struggled to provide a seamless experience on smaller screens.
Objective
Bringing Clarity and Creativity to the Table
Our mission was clear:
Streamlined Product Discovery: Simplify product discovery with better search functionality and intuitive filtering options.
Enhanced User Engagement: Showcase featured artists, educational videos, and reviews prominently, encouraging users to explore and learn.
Intuitive Navigation: Create a user-centric navigation structure, allowing seamless browsing through product categories and educational content.
Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure a seamless device experience catering to mobile shoppers.
Process Strategy
Painting a Path to Success
Our process was like crafting a masterpiece:
1. Research Similar Products: Gather ideas to improve our conceptual website and mobile application.
2. Review Current Architecture and Content Inventory: Dive into the existing structure to understand its strengths and weaknesses.
3. Card Sort and Task Analysis Testing: Multiple rounds of testing to refine our navigation.
4. Sitemap and Wireframes: Creating a logical structure and visualizing our vision.
Discovery
Delving into the Canvas of Research
In the discovery phase, we aimed to:
Identify challenges with the existing architecture.
Understand our target audience's needs, expectations, and preferences.
Create a clear and logical structure for the website content.
Test different navigation designs and layouts.
Content Inventory and Current Architecture Review
Peering into the Creative Palette
We dived into a content inventory and current architecture review:
PURPOSE
To understand the website's components and evaluate their arrangement.
WHAT WAS LEARNED
We identified several repeating pages and questioned the necessity of certain features and categories.
We then moved on to review the current architecture
Some major pitfalls of the current Blick Art Store site include...
Redundant menu items with a broad and deep amount of options
Misleading navigation
Define
PERSONAS & USE CASES
Crafting Personas for a Human Touch
We built personas to empathize with our users and understand their needs and motivations.
CARD SORT & TASK ANALYSIS TESTING
Unraveling the User's Mind
We conducted multiple rounds of card sort testing to understand how our users thought about specific categories and how they should be grouped and organized.
We then conducted multiple rounds of Task Analysis – Tree Jack – testing to verify our proposed navigation scheme.
CARD SORT TESTING RESULTS
TASK ANALYSIS TESTING RESULTS
What we learned:
The initial round needed improvements.
The wording of tasks could be clearer.
Categories like "Articles and Guides" could be combined.
More testing was required for specific tasks.
Design
Weaving the Tapestry of Wireframes and Sitemap
Our design process involved:
Iterative creation of wireframes and sitemaps.
Separating e-commerce from educational resources.
Simplifying and reorganizing categories.
Wrap-Up
The Grand Finale: Finding and Conclusion
Our journey revealed several insights:
Users' expertise was taken for granted.
Some categories needed renaming and retesting.
Navigation categories that could be used as search filters were removed.
The user journey from finding a product to adding it to the cart needed fewer steps.
Ongoing refinement was essential.
What I Learned and Would Do Differently
Lessons for Future Masterpieces
Throughout this project, I learned invaluable lessons and identified areas for improvement:
Expanded research scope to gather innovative ideas.
Refined content inventory process with a focus on user engagement metrics.
Improved card sort and task analysis testing procedures.
Embraced iterative wireframing and sitemap creation.
Incorporated pre-testing screening for better participant understanding.
Balanced user expertise and intuitive organization.
By applying these lessons, I aim to create even more user-centric and streamlined information architecture designs in future projects, ensuring a better user experience and achieving project goals.