Learning Resources Site Design
Advise on refining design for learning paths site, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), writing for the Web, and to establish governance for continuous change, with Director of Marketing, Head of Development, onshore and offshore team members, for a Fortune 100 software database firm.
Case Study
by Linda Lane
UX Design Consultant
Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash
Project Brief
Users are global software developers, test, database administrators, users & teachers
Meet with director of marketing and head of development to review needs and make recommendations on updating existing product education site, regarding its technologies and user experience needs. Gather requirements, research user feedback, analysis of most used pages, create wireframes, attend meetings to discuss needs and consultation, research and compare other competitors' sites, show best practices of educational sites, enhanced content strategy, and search, all remote.
Design Philosophy
Improve Over All Design, Humanize Content, Improve Search, Microsoft Modern Style Influenced
Make the site warmer, more personable, playful, friendlier, easier to search, navigate to discover and retain content. Update social links and use of social connections. Iterative progress and review sessions, provide design suggestions and feedback.
Design Process
Advise Marketing Director, US West Coast and in India, the Head of Development
Interact with management team as needed. Walk through comparative search techniques, in federated search, view sites. Recommend adding custom features from parent site. Add mega menus and photos of people. Answer user experience best practices questions, advice on digital marketing details, such as social images, using mega menus, augmenting search and optimize for search engines.
Design Recommendations
Visual Hierarchy, Writing for the Web, Search, Social Icons at Top Level
Provide examples of text and visual hierarchy to describe methods to use typefaces, sizes, color and position can change a chunk of text into a call to action for users, with the offshore development team.
The following is an example - the first paragraph as existing, and the second paragraph edited, using contextual and visual hierarchy in the design, is an improved call to action. Which one would you rather read? The single word "Watch" in green informs the reader that the link is a video. Bold lead content description provides the header, and a reduction in marketese clarifies meaning. The link is clear, in bold blue, with the date so the user doesn't need to guess when it was published.
I did some contextual field studies of functionality. Toured many search engines of competitors with team members, showing them what others offer and how to improve search, both from the perspective of choices and methods and from the results. Different kinds of results would be possible, and filtering improvements will enhance usability for users. The program's search results were enhanced or improved.
Recommend relocating social links to the top right of all pages with standard social icons, colorful circles to be easy to use. Anything that marketing wants users to find easily must considered top level, not be buried under a menu. Suggested continuous governance for learning processes and updates for applications, cloud, tools and technology, other related database applications, upgrading, strategies and resources that will regularly change.
50+
Resources plus a learning path
136K+
Users are globally database programmers, developers & administrators
3
ranked app globally
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