Role: Concept, Visuals, Interactions, Research, UX, UI, Branding
Skills: Product Design, UI/UX Design, Wireframing, Figma, Adobe XD
Duration: September – December 2023
Project Vision
InvestiGeek is a website developed in 2019 with a broad mission of spreading joy of knowledge, mostly relating to literature. For this project, I knew a goal-directed design method was needed in order to focus on my persona creation and goals. By reshaping the structure of the website, I would be rebranding Investigative Geek with a freshly established mission.
Challenges
- Design a cohesive interface for familiar and unfamiliar users.
- Eliminate barriers to subscription.
- Allow users to access the author’s online platforms relating to projects and merchandise.
- Create a minimalistic UI while keeping products and blog posts as the main focus.
Brainstorm
From the start, I knew several questions needed to be addressed before I could progress on the brand. I was able to narrow the questions down to the following:
What topics does Investigative Geek address?
What other platforms are affliated with the products?
Who is the primary target audience?
What are the challenges I will face moving forward?
What is the product and how does it relate to the topic?
What are the goals of the author and the user?
Preliminary Ideation
After analyzing Investigative Geek’s presence in existing blog posts, social media platforms, online stores, and the author, myself, I was able to draw conclusions as to which direction Investigative Geek should steer.
Meet the Users
Primary
Name: Sonia
Age: 20
Occupation: Barista
Secondary
Name: Alex
Age: 24
Occupation: Tech Support
Sonia is a barista at a university temporarily as she doesn’t know which career path she wants to take. She enjoys reading in her free time, mostly fantasy or nonfiction. Sonia has felt disheartened about reading fantasy since she believes it to be a waste of time compared to nonfiction reading, but she is searching for validation for her hobby, mostly through TikTok’s BookTok stream.
Alex is tech support as their first job since graduating with their Bachelor’s. They are trying reading as a current hobby in search of finding a personal passion. Alex spends a lot of time with their partner and their cat but finds themself lost when their partner is occupied with her own hobbies. They hope that reading holds their attention for longer periods of time than watching television.
Sitemap
It was important to maintain a landing page, but there also was an emphasis on easy navigation for the remainder of the website. By establishing a navigation bar that is easily accessible for both new and old users, anyone can navigate to their intended use for InvestiGeek.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Creating a low-fidelity wireframe allowed me to envision how the content of InvestiGeek would be sorted. I was important to leave enough content about each topic without creating clutter.
Branding Kit
I created a brand kit that highlights literature as a relaxing study and personal growth as a natural process. By incorporating pristine fonts and colors, the simple flow of literature is demonstrated. Then, by integrating symbols of nature, growth is displayed through natural assimilation.
Takeaways
Investigative Geek was my capstone project for my UI/UX Design Certification, so I learned all my basic design skills from this project. I think my current and future viewers will greatly benefit from my new web design and appealing branding. The primary difficulty I faced was starting my website with a WordPress template. I know I have a lot more to learn as a self-taught UX Designer and I hope Investigative Geek will grow through my experience.
Shelby Ann Davis 