Client Request
The client requested this project to modernize brand strategy and draw attention to the upcoming 400th anniversary of the founding of Cambridge, MA with a website that promoted the organization's mission of provoking questions about Cambridge history.
This was a team effort of the Lesley Art and Design Community Design Studio, of which I was the UX researcher and primary contact for the team, as well as assisting with site design, accessibility testing and information architecture.
Initial user research
History Cambridge needed our assistance to expand on the branding done by the previous student team into a website that contained, at least, a community calendar to tell about the events of Cambridge 400, and a 'About Us' page.
In order to dive deeper into who our website audience is, we had interviews with leaders from 5 different community organizations around Cambridge, creating empathy maps and drawing personas from our findings.
User Journeys
Following the Interviews, we were able to understand our two core user personas.
One core user is Jane, the part time community organizer who's looking for a way to get the community organization she works for to work with Cambridge 400.
The other was the Cambridge resident, referred to as Chris. He's a long time Cambridge resident who is aware of the private businesses in the city, but not the public festivities.
Both are technology savvy, but will use the website in different ways, which is reflected in the user journeys.
Sitemap
I lead the team in developing a sitemap for the Cambridge 400 website, laying out the information architecture based on the research, as the client gave us quite a bit of freedom, only requiring the inclusion of an 'About Us' page and a Calendar of events, so more targeted organization was needed.
Final product and impact
Following the research and information architecture, we began work on how best to visually design the site, keeping in mind the larger theme. After multiple drafts, we arrived at a simple, accessible design, which we used for the website.
