Workshop and high-level design to inform the development of the British Fashion Council’s new Designer Fact File website.
The Challenge
Understand Associated Designer expectations for business support, content organisation, usability and style to be offered by the British Fashion Council’s new Designer Fact File website. Deliverables: workshop, analysis report, high-level user flow, IA and high-level page template design.
Live site: http://www.designerfactfile.com
Workshop with DFF Associated Designers
Preliminary activity: Background information on the product and target users was gathered to inform a scope of work for the project and to set a foundation for a workshop (client recruited). Industry analysis and an in-depth client interview led to design explorations capturing preliminary ideas for feedback from workshop participants.
Workshop
Participant Ideal Homepage - mobile
Welcome survey: While helping themselves to coffee and cakes participants completed a short survey to capture their business background and online activity.
Hopes and fears: After BFC gave an overview of the product concept, participants expressed their hopes and fears about the new DFF website out loud. These were captured on post-its and posted on the wall for review throughout the workshop.
Participant Ideal Homepage - desktop
Build your ideal home page: Participants were provided with paper templates for mobile and desktop interfaces and asked to jot down what they expected to appear on DFF's homepage. As well as high-level expectations, this exercise captured subtle ideas such as placement of elements and how features might work.
Review of high-level design concepts: Preliminary ideas in the form of wireframes, navigation menus and visual design concepts were presented for feedback.
Hopes and Fears
Result: The workshop exercises engaged participants and client in lively discussion, bringing to light several pertinent issues. Analysis of workshop data involved affinitizing Hopes and Fears and transcribed conversation. Key themes were presented in an easy-to-read document detailing methods, findings - pinning observations to participant quotes - and design recommendations. Insights gained were reflected in high level wireframes for page templates, user flow and IA.
Topics menu categorised by business stage - a clear preference from workshop participants.
