Today sees the new Homepage go live on the First Choice site (www.firstchoice.co.uk). This the the MVP (Minimal Viable Product), comprising 11 of a total of 30 designed components (the rest will be released incrementally in the coming weeks and months). Also live is the whole new Destination section – pages about all the places that we offer holidays.  But these is only the first of a number of really exciting releases.

As things go live, I can start to talk about them and give some context and background to how they came to be, starting with homepage today! Over the next number of posts I hope to give you a complete insight into how I ran the process of such a huge redesign project from a UX & Design point of view, and the outputs.

So, the new Homepage… My vision was simple: Our Homepage should evoke emotion and provide inspiration. It should make people want to go on holiday with us.

Process

Below is a sequential outline of the steps involved in getting the project to this stage.

Research
Primarily desk based, analysing competitor, industry and best-of-breed online homepages. Homepage specific analysis of our wealth qualitative research and quantitative analytics data (I’ll talk about out research in another post).

Stakeholder interviews
Hour long, loosely directed interviews were held with key stakeholders to draw out business requirements.

Design Jam
A brainstorming session, involving the UX & Design team, to draw out ideas and concepts for the Homepage. The level of creativity was heavily influenced by budgetary constraints.

Analysis & Concept sketching
Analysis of all inputs, resulting in a definition of vision, solution approach and constraints. Sketching of component level concepts and rough page level outlines.

Review with stakeholder  group
A review was held in late December 2012 to share the Homepage vision, requirements, solution, constraints and component sketches.

High Level Estimates
The component sketches were then given to IT to provide high level estimates and costs. As the cost to implement came back higher than the allocated to this project, I then conducted a detailed review, rationalisation and reduction in the components, in order to reduce scope and cost.

Page zone identification
Further analysis and work was done to identify key page zones. 3 key zones were identified and documented, including components that can be placed in each zone.

Wireframing
Component wireframes were created and annotated for each component.

Co-Design session with Stakeholder
A co-design session took place with the Consulted group to take them through the new, rationalised component list and to co-create a composite Homepage (from the components). This elicited a MoSCoW for components, and further components were removed to reduce scope and cost.

Create Signoff Pack
A document was created giving a detailed overview of the Homepage delivery, context, analytics data and approach. This was used for communication and sign off.

Concept Sketches

We started by sketching how the page should look as a whole, sticking to a component approach.

Then I moved on to component level sketches:

I’ve spoken about how important and valuable sketching is before (read my post on sketching here) – quick, low fidelity and the ability to share concepts quickly.

Co-Design Sessions

Then we did some co-design and assembling components into a homepage with Stakeholders:

The co-design sessions were important to get us to a Homepage and getting everyone engaged with the process, but were primarily to make sure that everyone was in agreement with our approach and there would be no last minute objections or hurdles!

Zoning & Wireframes

The next step was to create a zoning document. This showed the various zones on the page and their purpose, and a more detailed version showing with components could/should appear in what zone.

From here, wireframes were created for all components, annotated, and also assembled into wireframe composites. While this may seem like overkill on documentation, it was necessary for development and testing which can happen in geographically diverse locations.

The Result

We then went into design, and what came out is the beautiful page that you see today.

It’s too early to try and put numbers behind the page’s impact, and indeed, we should wait until the rest of the site goes live to truly quantify success metrics (conversion, satisfaction etc.) – but I’m sure you’ll agree that it looks fantastic!

I need to name check Andy Birchwood (http://betulapendula.com/  -  @betulapendula), who was Design Manager though the concept and design stages of the Homepage project and really helped to drive and shape where we went. Thanks Andy!

Next Time

My next post will talk about the research that we did and how we analysed and used that information.

Designing Connected Products

http://madebymany.com/blog/designing-connected-products

The dark side of ecommerce

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62619-the-dark-side-of-ecommerce

Tracking the Behavioral Targeted Ad Debate

http://behavioraltargeting.biz/tracking-the-behavioral-targeted-ad-debate

How The Future Of Google Search Is Leaving iPhone Users Behind

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672463/how-the-future-of-google-search-is-leaving-iphone-users-behind

YouTube’s 20 Most-Shared Ads in April

http://mashable.com/2013/05/03/youtube-april-shared-ads

Apple Begins Countdown to 50 Billion App Store Downloads

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/05/02/apple-begins-countdown-to-50-billion-app-store-downloads

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewMultiRoom?cc=gb&fcId=638257170

How to do a Hotel website:

http://www.bgoperator.ru/amathus/

We take a business problem and craft elegant, beautiful and effective, customer-centric and commercially beneficial solutions. We follow a methodological process, from qualitative and quantitative research all the way through to rapid prototyping and testing, resulting in well thought out, evidence based and validated solutions.

I know that it doesn’t go through all the steps between research and testing (sketching, co-design, paper prototyping etc. etc.), not does it outline the types of research or types of testing (formative, summative, usability, BERT etc.) – but I think that, for a business stakeholder, it gives a nice vignette of what we of.

What do you think?

If you’re interested, the mission statement for my team is: We take a business problem and craft elegant, beautiful and effective, customer-centric and commercially beneficial solutions.

Also worth a watch is Paul Zak’s TED talk:  http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html. He also has a dedicated website to the subject of storytelling:  http://futureofstorytelling.org/.

How Do Users Really Hold Mobile Devices?

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2013/02/how-do-users-really-hold-mobile-devices.php

Creating Savvy and Sophisticated User Experiences through Personalization

http://uxmag.com/articles/creating-savvy-and-sophisticated-user-experiences-through-personalization

Logical Breakpoints For Your Responsive Design

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/03/01/logical-breakpoints-responsive-design/

Prioritizing Performance in Responsive Design

http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/prioritizing-performance-in-responsive-design/

Video of the week:

A new take on the interview process: Heineken – The Candidate

How mobile-optimised sites drive conversion rates and AOVs
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62222-how-mobile-optimised-sites-drive-conversion-rates-and-aovs

Using emotional intelligence to optimise conversion rates
http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62202-using-emotional-intelligence-to-optimise-conversion-rates

Up and Coming Mobile Design Trends
http://www.paulolyslager.com/mobile-design-trends/

Impact of Responsive Designs
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1691

Love, Hate, and Empathy: Why We Still Need Personas
http://uxmag.com/articles/love-hate-and-empathy-why-we-still-need-personas

Ericsson Mobility Report (PDF)
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2013/ericsson-mobility-report-february-2013.pdf

Friday Video:

Best bus stop ever: Are you Born Mobile?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpdcUakdQVA

Why aren’t our schools teaching code?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKIu9yen5nc

Friday Funny:

Living on a Prayer (Goat Edition):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w0CdXaOS5_o
(Yes indeed, this is no. 1 in the viral video chart!)

10 brilliant examples of responsive design in eCommerce
 http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/61824-10-brilliant-examples-of-responsive-design-in-ecommerce

Teaching user experience with Lego
http://shortboredsurfer.com/2012/12/teaching-user-experience-with-lego/ 

Trends in User Experience
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/12/trends-in-user-experience.php

Five Big UX Topics in 2012
http://boxesandarrows.com/five-big-ux-topics-in-2012/ 

Picture of the Week (Tom Fishbourne):

An Easy Way to Make Your Prices Seem Lower
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/commas-cents.htm

Evolving E-commerce Checkout
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1579

Slow Pages Lose Customers
http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/POVs/SlowPagesLoseUsers.pdf

Visual storytelling – a core part of digital marketing for hotels
http://www.tnooz.com/2012/12/31/how-to/visual-storytelling-a-core-part-of-digital-marketing-for-hotels/

How to Write Taglines That Double Sales
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/promotion-prevention.htm

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John Maeda: How art, technology and design inform creative leaders

It has named as the AdWeek’s 3rd best advert this year – and the only travel company to make the top 10.

You can see all the top 10 be starting here!