Problems
- Technical: The original website was running an older themes that was no longer supported and the main music features were no longer working properly. Because of the older software – themes, plugins – the original website also had a lot of compatibility issues and was running slowly.
- Audience: Because of the client’s multi-faceted work, the website received visitors interested in her books, workshops/classes, and performances. But the website was focused on her music work.
- Sales: The original Square store was no longer sufficient as there were new and different types of products that store could not support.
- Workflows: The event calendar and press media links hadn’t been a little challenging to keep updated, especially because press links had to be included in several different places.
Research
- I also created user journeys to identify users’ needs, pain points and design opportunities.
- Talked with the client about her new site goals and researched the best ways to achieve those goals. One original consideration was creating a custom music platform to offer music subscription but these type of custom platforms were shown to be more beneficial for platforms with many artists that generated regularly updated content.
- My discussion with the client also included understanding her workflow within the website, to make workflow improvements and maintain the site updated.
- To be able to sell print-on-demand merchandise, platforms like Printify are most appropriate.
- Also researched industry requirements for media kit content that was previously missing – and the appropriate plugins for the website, how they work, and the level of customization they offer.
- This part of the work also included taking inventory of the previous copies, images, other assets, and links.
Solutions
Based on the challenges, client goals, and research findings:
- We identified her audience and the additional content we needed to include in the new website. Because we have several different audiences, the site’s information architecture (IA) was restructured. With landing pages for each audience, there is better support for user journeys and search engine optimization.
- Since we could not integrate Printify with Square, the store was moved to Shopify where the client could sell different types of products – existing physical inventory, digital products, and print-on-demand.
- For the subscriptions, we focused on finding existing subscription tools/platforms, like Bandcamp, that would work best for a single artist and also provide the added music discovery feature.
- For the client’s workflow, I used advanced custom fields to create custom taxonomies for her discography and press links along with Elementor Pro templates that make the client’s workflow more straight-forward.
Design Process
The design process included:
- Redesigning information architecture and then creating wireframes and high-definition prototypes.
- Integrating plugins and adjusting them to fit the site’s needs and design – like with music player, event calendar, etc.
- The Shopify store also had to be redesigned with the existing inventory – until more merchandise is added.
Results
- Audience: the new website now has 3 landing pages that focus on different audiences, following the client’s trilogy: music, published works, and dance.
- Workflows: the new site simplifies the press link and album additions. The client only has to add them via the taxonomies dashboard. Elementor templates then display the links in all of the right pages.
- Technical: the new website is responsive and adjusts cleanly to various devices. It is also optimized and loads faster than before.
- Store: The new store is a Shopify store that allows the client to sell different types of products that Square could not support.
- Look and feel: The new website’s look and feel is clean and modern.
While this were the results when publishing the new site, the work is continuous and informed by site analytics.
