Vue Space 3D

UX/UI, WEBSITE DESIGN

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Vue Space 3D offers a full range of cutting edge photography and videography services in one place.

PROJECT BRIEF

I am the lead designer for this burgeoning 3D and professional photography business based out of Lake Oswego. I have been tasked with the creation, design direction and maintenance involved in ensuring the Wordpress site is up to date and working as expected.

We started a redesign after a quick period of corrections were made to the original site. However, over time, the theme broke and the entirety of the site needed to be corrected and transitioned to something less of a burden. After researching a few themes, we switched to one that allowed for a lot of custom code and felt more natural to use and create within. This redesign was actually scheduled to occur during the off season (autumn and winter), but had to be quickly redone earlier due to the previous theme breaking the design. The priority being the home page and then the rest of the pages. This also evolved into creating an entire shop using WooCommerce and utilization of gravity forms to lead the visitor towards the shop/appointment making pages.

FUN FACTS

This referral came to me from friends I worked with at the Apple Store. Being on their short list of local designers, they sent Grant and Doug my way and we met for lunch. They have been a wonderful client to work for and I love working on their stuff.

Being selected to work on their site after being a referral has been a wonderful and thrilling experience, I have been allowed creative freedom, looked upon as the expert, and work collaboratively with the owners to create something very beautiful. Especially after recently graduating and focusing on Wordpress as a way to create and fulfill client expectations.

THE FINE DETAILS

TIMELINE: Project began in 2017

ROLE: UX/UI designer, Web designer

SCOPE: UX/UI Design, Website creation, Page layout

TOOLS: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Wordpress

ASSETS: Wordpress Pages & Design, PNGs

vuespace3d.com

CUSTOMER FOCUSED DESIGN

VueSpace3D is a very customer focused photography business. In creating this site, we continued to keep their end clients and customers in mind as we worked on the site. Constantly ensuring the site worked as beautifully on mobile devices as it did on a desktop computer was a high priority. If something worked on desktop, but not on mobile, the idea was tabled until a solution could be reached. Sometimes this meant additional research and looking specifically at user journeys as they interact with the site, but ultimately this has been our focus as we continue to build out the site.

As we continued to work on elements of the site that required customer and user interaction, we found through our research that things that worked for them at one point, ceased to work optimally. Using this data that was compiled over the course of a couple months, we were able to implement something closer to what the customers and users needed.

USERS & AUDIENCE

The target users and customers of Vue Space 3D are primarily real estate professionals, insurance professionals, and homeowners. These users specifically are looking for a seamless experience and an easy to navigate site. They want to be able to view the information they need quickly and easily.

One key difference between this group of users/customers is they primarily view the site on desktop and secondarily via mobile. Applying user feedback has made booking an appointment through the website a pleasant experience either on desktop or on mobile due to preference.

TEAM & ROLE

With my previous experience of creating seamless online experiences using Wordpress, as the lead UX/UI designer I led the team in making changes requested from users, customers, and the owners.

I coordinated and led the design of the site including: prototyping, product design, visual design, interaction, plugin support and recommendation, User journey and research, and some architecture.

DESIGN PROCESS

In order to identify the problems with the website and the next steps to take, we started out by making the site aligned with user and customer needs. We wanted to make the site function better and provide customers a better experience. After going through feature requests and changes (and a complete redesign after the theme broke the site,) we were able to pinpoint areas of opportunity; visitors wanted an easier way to make online appointments along with a better way of staying updated on their appointments. Although we knew to truly grow the site to something more would require more resources, we focused entirely on the user experience in booking an appointment and proceed to design the site around that experience.

As we continued to visually explore options to enhancing the overall experience for the user, at one point during the design we decided to perfect the calendar and booking. We had received user feedback and iteration that showed that our specific user group who frequented the site preferred to book the appointment then make payments later or even at the appointment itself. At the time we had a store set up for users to pay via a shop model. While this worked for a bit, it turned out to be confusing and we decided to keep the store but to emphasize the "appointment booking first" option.

UX/UI DESIGN

The objective of the website and the interface was to keep the user/customers informed and allow for an easy way to book photography and videography appointments. We accomplished this by keeping the overall design very visual with large photography, strategic use and placement of text, vibrant color use, and an overall corporate look that encourages interaction.

Once we landed on a fully customizable theme that could provide the high level of enhancement we wanted, it would be easy to change and customize on the fly. So far, feedback from users and customers has been extremely positive. We even received constructive feedback and realized we had a pain point from customers and we were able to refocus and change that specific pain point that ultimately became a positive.

Inspiration for the site came from Vue Space's own library of photography. The background is a simple white with an occasional light grey background to differentiate sections. A deep blue background is used as well to emphasize quotes and important text. Keeping the overall design simple allows for the photography/videography to speak for itself.

The navigation at the top of the site also includes some iconography to indicate email and phone, the rest of the navigation following along with standard web layout and techniques.

OUTCOME & RESULTS

Since launching the website, it has been well received by both Vue Space 3D and their users and customers. It has increased appointment requests which also means a positive income stream for the company. Vue Space 3D is quickly becoming a well-rounded source for agents and homeowners alike. A fantastic result of this project has been the introduction of specific processes to requesting design changes and allowing for payments through the website which they didn't have before.

As a result of working with this client, I learned that when designing a site and encountering something less than ideal that could impact their business, the best course of action is to be honest, but to also offer a couple solutions addressing the issue.

CREDITS