Carla Christian Photography
Responsive Site

The Site

Carla Christian Photography is a local small business focused on selling alternative process cyanotype photography and marketing more traditional photography services for commissioned projects. Visitors to this site should be able to quickly identify the scope of services offered by this business, navigate to specific portfolio subsections, learn more about Carla’s background, and contact her directly to initiate a sale or booking.

Timeline: November 2021 - December 2021

My role: UX Writer. I conducted exploratory interviews to better understand site objectives and current user challenges, established brand identity, proposed content solutions for all business webpages, and provided feedback on layout and navigation. I then conducted basic user research via a moderated usability study to confirm that proposed design solutions effectively met user needs and identified objectives. Design solutions included long-form copy for “Bio,” contact form content, and updates to navigation and CTA triggers.

Programs utilized: Adobe XD

The Challenge

Business Objectives: Carla reported that she had previously been working as a commercial photographer but had recently transitioned to cyanotype print work and commissioned photography projects, and wanted to update her site to reflect this change in focus. Users should be able to clearly navigate to Carla’s cyanotype portfolio, view journalism and commercial photography work, and contact Carla to purchase prints or commissioned projects.

Site Opportunities: Initial review of Carla’s current site gave me a clear understanding of potential opportunities for improvement and areas where users may encounter challenges.

Conclusions included:

  • "Home" CTA may not be needed

  • Too many options for navigation across the top bar - may be consolidated

  • Descriptors for CTAs may be unclear

  • Fonts are varied and inconsistent

  • No clear option to contact the business

  • “Contact" option is buried below the fold

  • Contact option under bio tab isn't intuitive

  • Minor content/grammar issues noted in bio copy

  • Bio info extends below the fold

  • "Cyanotype" label is duplicative in the presence of "wet process" and "dry process" labels

  • Clicking on "alt process" takes the user to this screen via another route and is a bit clunky

  • Site provides a login function, which is cut off screen to the right and may not be necessary given the purpose of the site

Design Process

I created a high fidelity prototype in Adobe XD with proposed content changes. This allowed Carla to view the changes in a setting that mirrored her current site, and allowed for user testing of new navigational pathways and content.

Notable changes:

  • Relevant information moved above the fold in the Bio

  • CTA buttons along the header were simplified, clarified, and consolidated

  • Contact form received its own header button for quick navigation

  • Home button was removed in lieu of business logo that links to the home page

  • Long-form copy within bio was rewritten for clarity and brand identity

  • Login function was removed

  • Typography was simplified

 Usability Study

 

Research Questions

  • How long does a typical user spend on the site?

  • Are CTA labels clear and informative?

  • Is the purpose of the site evident to users?

  • Can users quickly navigate to identified targets (portfolio, contact, bio)?

Participants

  • 4 participants, all past customers, all female-identifying and between the ages of 40-65

Methodology

  • 15-30 minutes, observed

  • Remote, from the users’ homes

  • All participants were asked to review the prototype and complete four prompted tasks

 

Conclusions

Informative Text

Users found the written content within the site clear, predictable, and useful. They appreciate small touches of humor and found language to be consistent with brand expectations

Clear Pathways

Users were able to quickly navigate to Bio, Contact, and Portfolio sections. They reported that the content within these sections was what they expected to find.

 

 Accessibility Considerations

  • Design choices such as color and font were confirmed to be high contrast and legible via colorsafe.co

  • CTA avoided jargon and were descriptive instead of presumptive. Word choice was consistent across the site

  • Headers identified as Header 1, Header 2, etc to support individuals using screen readers to navigate the site

 Impact

The app allows users to view Carla’s portfolio and background and easily book her for work, which is in line with her business objectives.

Next steps

Regroup in six months to assess changes to web traffic and booking rates, and to confirm business objectives are still being met.