Suffern Downtown
The Suffern Downtown site serves an exurban community, a mix of moderately affluent commuters and in-town resident day workers. Suffern's population as of the 2000 census was approximately 11,000 people. The site was run under the auspices of the Suffern Parking Authority, a governmental office that controls parking and issues parking permits for local residents.
The site had been running for approximate 2 years. Through strategic interviews of users and observational interviews certain new UX goals became clear:
1) Users liked the interactive map, but found little else of lasting interest ;
The site had been running for approximate 2 years. Through strategic interviews of users and observational interviews certain new UX goals became clear:
1) Users liked the interactive map, but found little else of lasting interest ;
2) Access to purchasing parking permits was a desired goal when going to the site;
3) A more prominent calendar of events could make people use the site more frequently;
4) The site was not desirable nor practical for handheld device use, particularly if the visitor was in a car or on foot in Downtown Suffern.
The major goal of the site had been to serve as an information conduit about the local downtown area, both to bolster and improve local commercial and retail business, and to offer information about local activities.
The redesign was intended to modify the existing CMS-based site (using Wordpress), which contains a proprietary interactive map of the Downtown area (created in Flash), to more readily display 1) a map of local businesses; 2) current news and activities for local area residents, 3)provide online access to purchase parking permits. It was decided to not address a complete re-tooling of the site that would make it completely hand-held friendly using "responsive" web development techniques or to develop a free-standing application for iOS or Android, due to budget constraints.
The major goal of the site had been to serve as an information conduit about the local downtown area, both to bolster and improve local commercial and retail business, and to offer information about local activities.
The redesign was intended to modify the existing CMS-based site (using Wordpress), which contains a proprietary interactive map of the Downtown area (created in Flash), to more readily display 1) a map of local businesses; 2) current news and activities for local area residents, 3)provide online access to purchase parking permits. It was decided to not address a complete re-tooling of the site that would make it completely hand-held friendly using "responsive" web development techniques or to develop a free-standing application for iOS or Android, due to budget constraints.
Wireframing - First version of site revision (created prior to UX interview stage and used for prototype testing):
1)All content to be "above the fold" and quickly available on web/tablet view
2) Navigation minimized, relegated to top area and built in type to eliminate image downloads (improving SEO as well)
3) Local Map retains key focal point.
NOTICE: Linking to purchase parking permit not easily found; Branding as "Downtown Suffern" is not familiar to town residents and is subsequently changed back to "Suffern Downtown";
Wireframe to Comp: Home (Landing) page and interior pages:
1. Home page and deeper navigation flow:
Further development showing changed placement of branding (now a full live area header, with rotating images); interactive map reduced in size but now labeled in stylized type to retain high visibility; clearly identified activities calendar linking to deeper content within the site; large graphic link to purchase parking permits; addition of smaller display advertisement space, which may also be used for PSA or in-house promotion.
2. Interactive map displays through iframe in large live content area.
3. Calendar of Events - First level show monthly calendar display; Second level (seen below) shows columnar details; 3rd level has item-level descriptions of event.
4. Civic News shows feature-length articles about local establishments and activities.
Wireframe with graphic elements to display better detail of look and feel of home page.
Wireframe - comp of interactive map page
Wireframe - comp of level 2 of Calendar of events
Wireframe - comp - placement of News-type article - linked from "Featured News" from right hand column navigation or CIVIC NEWS tab on top header navigation.
