Project Overview
The goal of this project is to revitalize the American Institute of Architects United Kingdom website's user experience, ensuring it is intuitive, visually appealing, and can effectively communicate the AIA UK's value to its members and to the broader community.
Enhancing the EXPERIENCE while ALSO targeting GROWTH
I acted as the sole designer, product manager, project planner and implementation specialist for this project as Lead UX & UI Designer at Polaris Design Studio.
Role
Duration
Team
Challenge
The AIA UK website serves as a pivotal platform for architects and design professionals across the UK. However, the current site presents several challenges including:
Navigation Complexity
Outdated Visual Design
Content Accessibility
Goal
Create a new responsive website that focuses on showcasing the value of the AIA UK in order to help grow the organization and encourage members to become more involved.
Key Outcomes
31%
63.9%
8.9
Design Process
Discovery & Research
A) Understand stakeholder requirements & constraints
Goals
Constraints
B) Current Website Audit
The next step was to perform an audit of the live website and identify any challenges with the design that could be hindering the AIA UK's goals of membership growth and increased participation with their activities.
Below are the main areas I was assessing during the audit. The audit results, along with user research insights, were presented to leadership in order to get stakeholder buy in for the next stage of the project which would involve the actual redesign work.
After the website audit, I set out to speak to users and understand their experience with the current AIA UK website and to understand where it is lacking. This too was presented to leadership as a way to prove the need to even embark on this project and to frame the redesign's direction and justify the design rationale presented during Phase 2.
Research Overview
Research Insights Summary
Persona Developmemt - Understanding Typical Users
This step was crucial for this project because I was designing for multiple audiences and it was imperative to balance the needs of each user—including members, prospective members, students, sponsors, and administrators—while creating a cohesive and easy-to-navigate experience.
D) Aligning user needs with business goals
After completing the audit and the user research, the critical outcome of this phase was to paint a clear picture for stakeholders as to how what I found during the research phase was going to guide me in redesigning the website in a way that would achieve the AIA UK's business goals. I needed to show stakeholders that by addressing user needs, I would be able to acive their goals.
IA, Wireframing & Design Development
A) Information Architecture
B) Design Development
Iteration 1 of the website redesign used one of the secondary colors of the AIA palette according to stakeholder comments saying they wanted to experiement beyond the main Black/White/Red colors. However, after this point, stakeholders decided to stick to the main Black, White and Red color scheme.
From Iteration 2 to 3, the tweaks were more minor, including aesthetic reconfigurations and alignment issues. Below is a detailed comparison of the evolution of the Homepage. To see the full, detailed evolution of all screens, please click HERE.
Technical Implementation & Testing
Key Stats on Redesign
The redesign required a complete rethinking of the UX strategy of the website in order to prioritize the organization's goals. Based on the research and audit, the final page count was 30 permanent pages and 5 page templates for seasonal events. Content was redistributed in a way that made more sense to users and which suported the AIA UK's growth goals.
A) Technical Implementation
Styles & Layout Guidelines
After Phase 2, I moved onto building the website in SquareSpace. Based on my recommendation to move on from the current template and template usage all together, I started the task by developing the SquareSpace styles and the layout and grid settings. I then created reusable sections and page templates to facilitate building more pages and content in the future. Lastly, I built all pages and copied the rich legacy of the AIA UK's newsletter and blog archives to ensure nothing was lost.
Custom Code Solutions
During this phase I also had the opportunity to sharpen and grow my HTML and CSS skills as the current SquareSpace platform presented various challenges and limitations as to what you can do with the design using out of the box capabilities.
This was important because the custom code solutions allowed me to:
Create a more intuitive navigation with better hierarchy using custom font weights and sizes
Decrease the out of the box 2 page mobile navigation menu to one cohesive and more intuitive menu
Apply the AIA UK's custom branding guidelines
Create desktop vs mobile sections that made sense instead of relying on automatic resizing and layouts
Add back to top buttons for better content accessibility
B) Usability Testing & Final Design
Once the website was built and I had optimized the responsiveness across devices, I moved onto the testing phase. Due to cost and time constraints, this was limited to one round of usability testing. However, the testing proved invaluable to the final design and I was able to discover and work through varous kinks presented in the functionality and design of the website across devices.
Usability Testing Framework & Results
From Insight to Action
Impact on Business Goals
Launch & Handover
A) Documentation & Handover
After completing the website, I also factored in a phase during which I would handover the website to the AIA UK's administrator and website team. I created documentation and led training workshops to explain how to use and maintain the website from the back-end. This was helpful to ensure the final product aligned with stakeholder goals and met their needs in terms of future maintenance and management.
Key aspects training included:
B) Results
After reviewing the webiste's analytics 3 months after launch, we identified two clear areas of improvement:
Increasing Conversion Rates
The new design proved beneficial to the growth goals set out at the beginning of the project as seen by the improvements in the metrics we set out to measure in the new website compared to the old site. Below are metrics taken over the 8 weeks prior to launch vs 8 weeks post launch:
We saw an increase in event mailing list subscriptions rise from 25% up to 88.9%
We saw an increase in newsletter mailing list subscriptions rise from 0.3% up to 11.1%
We saw an increase in users getting in touch rise from 2.7% up to 15.6%
The significance of these metrics is that the webiste is encouraging more people to want to attend events, engage with the organization and eventually become members - the AIA UK's overall goal.
Increasing Website Traffic
In addition to the growth impact caused by the improved design, all the work I carried out with SEO improvements also proved helpful in driving traffic to the website and across pages once users arrived to the site. Note that the numbers may not seem grand, but we did go live during the quiet Christmas season.
We saw an increase in traffic by 4.35%
We saw an increase in unique views by 7.5%
Challenges & Learnings
Designing for Feasibility
Building the website myself fundamentally changed the way I approached design. Rather than relying on engineers to identify technical limitations, I evaluated feasibility throughout the design process, validating ideas through early prototyping and technical research. This helped set realistic stakeholder expectations and reduced implementation risk before development began.
Developing Stakeholder Relationships
Leading the project from discovery through delivery meant establishing stakeholder relationships from day one. I facilitated discussions, aligned priorities, and translated business goals into user-centred design decisions while maintaining momentum throughout the project.
End-to-End Ownership
I led the project from discovery and UX research through implementation and launch, giving me a deeper understanding of how design decisions translate into real products while dealing with issues of scope creep and ensuring the project progressed to each phase in a timely manner.
Designing for Multiple Audiences
Designing for diverse audiences reinforced the importance of prioritising users' mental models over organisational structure when shaping navigation and content. Rather than designing separate experiences for each audience, structuring content around shared user goals created a more intuitive and scalable experience for everyone.
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