Refresh Philly: Happy Cog on visitphilly.com Redesign

Kirsten — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:08:33 +0000

Make the website become a “trusted advisor”
Worked on for over a year
Information architecture
- Classification
- Context
- Bridging the two ^
“Mental Models” by Indi Young
Aligning the experience around the 3 main nav options or else they don’t get included in main nav
When is something navigation and when is it interface?
Can use your own team and circle of friends for user research
1-month development
Used ExpressionEngine (could have used Django or Rails)
2 week manual migration of content ended up having better content because they curated and edited
Focused on public side first and then cleaned up backend later
Accessibilty should be more important than animations and flashy stuff
Validator = show outline to ensure semantic-ness
Define hover & focus always at the same time to make things keyboard accessible
Set CSS backgrounds for people without JS or Flash
Process
- Discovery <-> IA <-> Design
Unified Approach
- Usually deliver 3 design concepts to facilitate discussion among the three
- Inherent value in all 3 designs
Themes for Art Directions
Nostalgic <-> Distinctive <-> Contemporary <-> Fashionable
Design isn’t a sniper but a shotgun blast that needs refining

Kirsten Jahn on Design & Life » happy cog