User Research

MY ROLE: Researcher and Interface Designer

For this project, I performed Heuristic evaluations and created wireframes.

THE PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Heuristics and Wireframes

Barnstormers.com was a legacy website that was in need of modernization. I utilized Neilsen’s Heuristics to analyze the barnstormers.com website. I used the results of the heuristic analysis to develop two wireframes that address the most glaring pain points. Proper current design practices were implemented in an effort to greatly improve the usability of the site.

HEURISTIC EVALUATION

The original site suffers from numerous issues that are outlined in my Heuristic Evaluation Sheet. The navigation was identified as the largest issue.

POOR NAVIGATION

The site consists of a line of text as links at the very top of the page, above the header. Then a header with a logo and slogan separates the initial navigation section from a second navigation line. It was unclear which items were clickable and which were just informative text.

2. LACK OF ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT ARRANGEMENT ISSUES

There are no boxes or breaks in the different sections of the pages, except for when the site introduces a left side navigation frame on some pages, but not all. There is no consistency throughout the site. An analogy to the layout would be as if a novel was written without chapters or paragraphs, just one long string of sentences. The site's organization was poor making it difficult to figure out how to find things.

3. DESIGN INCONSISTENCIES

This site does not have an identity. Is it a site for buying and selling primarily, Is it a aviator club? Is it a site for resources? There are many different facets of information and none are separated and easy to distinguish. I broke down the site into 3 areas. Buy/Sell, Classifieds, and newsletters/resources. When redesigning the website, focus should go on displaying the buy/sell aspect of the site.

THE WIREFRAMES

I chose to redesign the Home Page and the Buy Page as I see these two pages as the best representation of the lack of consistency between pages and also because of the importance of the main page as the most frequented page on the site. Additionally, these two pages were identified as having major issues by the heuristic evaluation. The subsequent site pages would follow the same design basis as these two pages.

The Home Page would establish the layout and feel for the entire site and provide all necessary information to the user for easy navigation throughout the site.

The Browse Page is designed for easy search and display of products tat are for sale on the site. The Newsletter, Testimonials and Events pages would be designed similar to this page.

HOME PAGE:

The redesigned homepage addresses navigation painpoint as well as featuring the 3 main actions that users would execute on the main page.

This image shows a closeup of the redesigned navigation and arrangement of the header.

The search box was missing from the prior website.

Additionally, users can post to the classified section of the site. All search boxes are populated dropdowns that will aid the user to find what they are looking for.

Thumbnails show “Your Last Search” and “Related Items” appearing directly below the main Search box/graphic. Also cutting down on the clutter, I included 4 main boxes for the images. .

Finally, a revamp of the footer to help organize repeated user needs.

BROWSE PAGE:

This image shows the same header and footer from the home page and introduces a more common 3-row style layout.

This image shows the search function complete with dropdowns replacing the old site’s cluttered approach to searchable lists.

This image shows the search results which are limited to 4 thumbnails and a brief summary of the listing. At the bottom of the row is the option to click “next” or “previous” for more search results.

Advertising has been relocated to the 3^rd row as seen. This allows for the perpetual display of paid advertisers without being too burdensome and taking away from the main focus.