Project Overview
Client: Nella Photography
Role:UX/UI Designer
Industry: Photography and Art
Duration: February - Ongoing
What is the main Problem?
CHALLENGES
About Client
Nella Photography is a prestigious agency, renowned for its captivating galleries, remarkable events, and diverse photography services. As industry leaders, they embrace technology by offering virtual galleries and organizing annual master classes.
Seeking to redefine their marketing objectives, they sought a user-friendly platform to showcase their expertise, exhibit their work, and attract clients with their unparalleled artistry.
“But how can we manage and showcase a myriad of captivating events, galleries, and classes, each with distinctive features and information? Discover an alluring platform that not only celebrates the artistry of photography but also delivers an irresistible user experience, enticing all who seek these remarkable services.”
I conducted a collaborative brainstorming session with the Nella Photography team to uncover the key challenges and pain points.
The results from the brainstorming session underscore the critical factors that will contribute to the achievement of desired business outcomes for Nella Photography. The analysis highlights the significance of implementing a centralized platform, ensuring a consistent and seamless user experience, organizing event management processes, enhancing content updates, and improving visibility in order to drive success.
The areas that are needed to work on deeply:
Centralized Platform
a user-friendly content management system (CMS)
amplify brand exposure
A harmonized user experience that resonates with their brand identity.
Balancing Aesthetics with Functionality: Ensuring that the website redesign and platform development strike a balance between visually appealing design elements and functional usability.
Integrating Virtual Gallery Functionality: Designing an intuitive and engaging virtual gallery experience that replicates the feeling of being in a physical gallery can pose technical and design challenges.
Handling Large Amounts of Visual Content: Nella Photography may have an extensive collection of photographs and artworks. Designing an interface that can effectively handle and showcase a large volume of visual content without overwhelming the user or causing performance issues can be a challenge.
sOLUTIONS
ensuring that functionality and ease of use take precedence over purely aesthetic elements. Perform usability testing to validate the design and iterate based on user feedback.
Design an intuitive navigation system that allows users to explore and interact with virtual artworks seamlessly. Consider incorporating features like zooming, panning, and detailed artwork descriptions to enhance the immersive experience.
Implement progressive loading techniques to ensure a smooth browsing experience, and provide options for users to customize their view of visual content, such as sorting options or personalized collections.
Marketing Side
At this stage, I need to adjust users’ experience to the business gain creator, pain reliever, and services. Accordingly, By using the Value Proposition Canvas, Nella Photography can develop a customer-centric approach that enhances customer satisfaction and fosters long-term relationships, ultimately delivering a unique and compelling value proposition to its target audience.
Experiences to design according to Value proposition Canvas analysis:
Engaging Community Features: Integrate social features like forums, comments, or user-generated content to foster a sense of community among photographers, art enthusiasts, and clients, encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Responsive Booking Process: Create a user-friendly and intuitive booking system that allows customers to easily schedule and manage photography sessions, master classes, or event tickets.
Personalized Recommendations: Implement a recommendation engine that suggests relevant artworks, photography services, or master classes based on users' preferences, browsing history, and interactions.
From Vision to Reality: The Redesign Process
01- Discovery
Heuristic Evaluation
uSER iNTERVIEW
To gain user insights, I conducted research targeting different potential clients in various segments that Nella Photography offers its services to. The user groups were divided into three main categories:
personal and portrait photography clients
This approach allowed for a comprehensive understanding of each user group's needs, preferences, and pain points, enabling the design team to tailor the user experience and create solutions that cater to the specific requirements of each segment.
Personal and Portrait Photography Clients
Desire for a personalized and intimate photography experience that captures their unique personality and emotions.
Importance placed on clear communication and collaboration with the photographer to ensure their vision is understood and executed.
Need for a seamless booking process and transparent pricing information.
Interest in viewing past work and testimonials to gauge the photographer's skills and expertise.
02- Define
03- Ideation
User Journey map
card Sorting
INFORMATION Architecture
product photography clients
Product Photography Clients
Emphasis on high-quality images that effectively showcase their products and drive sales.
Demand for a streamlined process to submit products, discuss requirements and provide feedback.
Interest in additional services such as photo editing or retouching.
Importance of accurate product representation and attention to detail.
students interested in master classes
Students for Master Classes
Desire for comprehensive course materials and resources that cover various skill levels.
Interest in practical assignments and real-life examples to enhance learning.
Need for a user-friendly platform to access course materials, submit assignments, and interact with instructors and fellow students.
Importance of instructor expertise, credibility, and the ability to provide constructive feedback.
User Journey map
Introducing Emma, the Fashion-Forward Marketer—a driven marketing professional seeking a reliable photography service that can capture the essence of her brand's fashion products through stunning imagery.
User Journey map
The user journey map highlights a potential customer's initial interest in Nella Photography, followed by confusion and dissatisfaction due to the lack of information and clarity regarding their photography services. The user expresses disappointment at the absence of similar projects and professional model photos on the website, as well as the difficulty in finding cooperation conditions, pricing information, and a convenient method of communication. Consequently, the user considers exploring alternative options for their photography needs.
During the workshop, we shared the Discovery Results with the client and introduced an exercise to generate the primary solution hypotheses that will be validated throughout the project. Through collaborative discussions, we successfully define three key solutions for each users group needs identified during the discovery phase.
Product Photography Clients:
Design an intuitive interface where clients can easily upload product details, discuss requirements, and provide feedback. Implement a gallery or dashboard where clients can view and approve images before final delivery.
User flow
Personal and Portrait Photography Clients:
Showcase personalized and intimate photography experiences. Incorporate a gallery feature that allows clients to view and select their photos, as well as provide feedback during the selection process.
Students Interested in Master Classes:
Design a dashboard that provides easy access to course materials, including comprehensive resources and practical assignments. Incorporate a discussion forum or chat feature for students to interact with instructors and fellow students, fostering a sense of community.
In order to enhance the website's navigation and organization, we carried out 14 remote card sorting sessions with prospective users. Through analyzing the outcomes of these sessions, we utilized the insights to revamp the information architecture and site map of the website.
Below is an illustrative example of the card-sorting exercise:
This stage involved suggesting a navigational framework using a product map and various layout alternatives derived from the map. Additionally, I presented a user journey for the initial phase of the new user's experience, specifically the process of setting up their account, which involved a sequence of steps to gather the required information for display within the platform.
After Confirming the General Architecture of the website, I started to design flows that users have to follow for different tasks. At this stage we had lots of iterations to reach an accessible and easy-to-understand flow for users. The following flow is about Setting Product Photography order in the website:
04- Develop
Usability test and iterations
What Did clients and users say after the first phase of the test?
After designing the different parts of the wireframes, I had a meeting with the key stakeholders and explained to them the functionality and flows of the wireframes and see how potential users navigate through the initial wireframes. The first iterations of the home page are shown bellow:
05- Deliver
prototype
Utilize the business's previous experiences as a privilege to showcase a portfolio of past photographs and notable collaborations
Virtual Gallery
Hero Image
For the Hero Image, we decided to design a combination of Nella’s previous photography experiences, to show users that this business offers a wide range of photography services at first glance the website
The Goal:
Enhance user engagement by utilizing high-quality visuals to introduce the business and clearly convey its services, ensuring that users can grasp the offered services without the need to scroll down.
Services
The Goal:
The Goal:
In this stage, I have tried to present the services in an unordered manner, aiming to evoke a sense of artistic and engaging elements. Additionally, I have capitalized on the business's past experiences as a valuable asset, showcasing previous photographs in a portfolio format and highlighting collaborations with renowned brands, thus ensuring users are exposed to evidence of successful partnerships.
In order to create an immersive virtual gallery experience, I have chosen to showcase the masterpieces captured by Nella's photographers through an automated scrolling feature with an unordered arrangement.
creating an engaging and visually captivating experience for viewers.
Master Classes
This section provides a comprehensive display of available classes and their respective schedules. Users can conveniently access information regarding upcoming class dates and details from this section.