Defining Blog Architecture
The Company Store, an e-commerce brand in the home space, was looking to integrate a blog into its website. As the Lead UX designer for the project, I was responsible for articulating the problem and designing a solution taking into account business goals, user needs, and technical requirements. I used user stories to get the team thinking from the perspective of the user, and other artifacts like sitemaps, sketches, and wireframes to generate alignment on the vision for the experience and facilitate execution.
Articulating the project
I started the project by asking questions to every stakeholder involved. What were the goals; what was the scope; what needed to be prioritized? After getting some answers I drafted a project plan and presented what I had gathered to the team to generate alignment and start executing.
Producing artifacts to create structure
Once clear on the goals and priorities, I focused on thinking through the experience from the perspective of the user. First I used user stories to create narratives that made sense from a UX perspective and helped me think through the structure of the blog. Then I made on some sketches to translate it to a page structure, and created a sitemap to help communicate the idea to the team. Lastly, I created clean wireframes that helped clarify the direction, flow, and details so the team could start building the blog.
For this project, I worked with a visual designer that created the high-fidelity mockups based on the wireframes, which already had been approved by stakeholders.
