Sorry for the blatant rip off Star Wars fans, but I think it kind of fits the mood now during my job search. To get to the point, I have started a new solo project designed to improve my skills and help get a job.
I am doing a website redesign of Nordstrom.com’s landing page. I like Nordstrom, they are a local giant in Seattle, they have a good company ethos and inclusive values, they have good UX Designers and most troubling for me, their entire site is very well thought out. It will be hard to do better than they did, especially in one week.
Yep, one week is all I am giving myself to rework the landing page. Should be plenty of time if I keep at it (and off the blogging). I have already written my project proposal and thought out how I want to proceed. This isn’t going to be some grand affair, just a revision to show how I would do things. Although, I do want to have it based in reality and their actual user needs. So I plan to run a discovery survey to find out user’s needs and desires. I want to be designing with a goal in mind: Improving the user experience.
How I plan to get there
- Competitive visual analysis — Nordstrom and four other competitors.
- Research industry trends, data and other pertinent findings.
- Online user survey — What pain points do the users see.
- Paper sketches — Visualize my initial designs.
- High fidelity mockup in tablet and desktop device sizes.
- Round 1 user desirability testing. Aim is for 3–4 testers.
- Round 2 high fidelity mockup utilizing user testing
- (If time) Round 2 user desirability testing. Aim for 3–4 testers.
- (If time) Final high fidelity mockup design.
Nine steps, seven days to get it done. My next blog will be a recap of how things went. I expect to have good news for you. My next step is to create a survey and line up a few testers.
I can’t wait to start. I named this project ‘A New Hope’ because I am hoping it will be a good show piece on my portfolio and I hope it will be fun too. If Nordstrom ever comes calling, guess what I will show them. Others have done this successfully, I hope to be another.
