Valentia Isle Festival were looking for a new identity and re-design for their website. They were expanding the festival from 1,000 to 3,000 and wanted to increase online ticket sales.
Given the time frame of 4 weeks a pragmatic and strategic approach was paramount. A lean approach would have to be taken, cherry picking the most effective User Centered Design methodologies to reach business targets and KPI’s.
Given the time frame I had to locate the sites pain points quickly, a lean strategy would have to be implemented. I had very strong assumptions as to what the problems were but I had to be sure.
The bounce rate of the site was 72% unsually high you might say. The conversion rate of users buying tickets was 1%, this was a clear indicator that things needed to be improved.
Research conducted on music festival sites gave me great insights into their architecture and branding. Observations were categorized into positive, negative & interesting. I also timed the page loading of competitor sites on Wifi and 3G.
5 user tests were performed followed by interviews to evoke insights and find user pain points. Users had serious trouble finding the Line up and Ticket sections of the site as they were buried deep in the site. 2 users suggested that the website needed a site map.
I created 3 personas from the data collected from the research phase, each with varying wants and needs.
“I love paying for things quickly and easily.”
“Ill always check the line-up before I buy a ticket to a festival.”
“Site Maps are essential at a festival, I’d be lost without them.”
This research method provided me with all the information needed to make an improved experience. Usability problems and architectural mismanagement were prevalent and gave great insights into the sites improvement.
I worked my way through many iterations of sketches until i found a simple clean layout that would work responsively over mobile and desktop.
The framework chosen was Bootstrap which supports mobile and desktop. I also implemented Eventbrite for ticket payments. With 2 day to spare before the advertising campaign I conducted some last minute qualitative user tests to validate my designs.
Given the short time frame I learned how to adapt a lean strategical approach to a project. I nurtured how to cherry pick the most effective techniques to quickly make a high quality digital artifact.