UI/UX Consulting and Creative Direction

Sundance Institute

My Role

Creative Direction
UI Consulting
UX Consulting
Website Design Consulting

Project Scope

BRD
Competitor Research
Front End Development
Design Documentation
Graphic Design
Mockups
Process Flows
Prototypes
User Journeys
User Personas
User Testing
UX/UI Design
Website Design
Wireframes

As the Creative Director for 729 Solutions, I executed a Discovery Phase for Sundance Institute. I guided the team and structured a plan of attack for their website reorganization to optimize and improve their UI/UX – considering future organizational direction, accessibility and inclusivity.

Problem Statement

Sundance Institute was in need of a UI/UX consultant that could help them improve the usability of their site and provide a smooth interface design for their broad range of user personas, with an expansive list of needs and abilities.

In addition, they needed a web designer to create an experience using their existing brand identity that would captivate and entice users to explore their offerings and content.

Project Goals

Work with stakeholders to document and define project scope.

Conduct stakeholder interviews.

Gain insights into an optimal site structure.

Identify and understand user personas.

Understand user journeys.

Spot new marketing opportunities.

Structure and conduct useability testing.

Design wireframes, mockups and prototypes.

Optimize site structure to improve user experience.

Software Used

BlueJeans
Lucid Chart
Google Suite

Development

CSS 3
HTML 5
JavaScript

Project Planning and Research Methods

Business Analysis
Competitor Research
Stakeholder Interviews
Technical Process Mapping
Tree Testing
User Interface Testing
User Interviews
User Journey Maps
User Personas

Workshop Focuses

What internal and external challenges is the organization faced with?

What industry standards should be considered?

How do we ensure consideration of a wide demographic of personas?

How can we help meet marketing goals of the website without overshadowing the organization’s non-profit mission?

What can we do to decrease the burden on Sundance teams for future site maintenance and updates?

How can user testing help guide content organization and direction?

In Review

Stakeholders at Sundance Institute had gone through UI/UX research in the past, so they were ready, willing and active participants in the process.

By taking the time to understand not just the users external to the organization, but the internal users and their business processes, we were able to make recommendations that made everyone’s lives easier.

The new website design allowed for festival goers, artists, supporters and just curious film enthusiasts to browse the site quickly and efficiently. In addition, we found ways to expose them to lateral information about the institute – opening up marketing opportunities to increase audience retention, interest, and inevitability institute support through memberships, donations and festival attendance.

Finally, we found ways to make internal processes more efficient by consolidating content into a single source of truth, encouraging cross department collaboration and opening up lines of communication. Through modifications of the CMS, new page layout templates, and update to their Front End Asset Library, future maintenance of the website would be faster and easier for the teams across their fast paced organization.