welcome to my portfolio
Whether it's big or not, I don't know. As far as my portfolio goes, here is some of the work I've been commissioned to do along with some personal projects I initiated myself.
ChaCha
Case Study: ChaCha
ChaCha is a service that provides answers to user's questions. Questions can be submitted and answered online at the ChaCha website, or using mobile phones via text or the ChaCha mobile application. Through their unique "ask-a-smart-friend" format, ChaCha has become the leading answers service with more than a billion questions answered to date all in a fun, conversational format perfect for those in need of fast, free answers while on-the-go. ChaCha has surpassed 17 million visitors according to Quancast.
Client's Needs:
The website had what the client labeled as a "busy and spammy" look and, in turn, a watered down brand. Also, the items that were more important and were getting more clicks had to be brought to the forefront.
ChaCha's largest form of revenue came from the advertising space on the site. Therefore, a big challenge was going to be balancing the content with their advertising requirements.
There is so much dynamic data being pushed to each page that it would cause it to scroll endlessly. Organizing the sections and allowing information to be displayed by the user's actions with AJAX would be a reasonable compromise. They also wanted a place to add featured content in a prominent location on the site. The search bar wasn’t standing out enough and the button looked too much like another online service.
The site also had to be contained in a block in order for them to sell advertising space in the background.
*Note: The designs were approved and handed off to ChaCha. Their internal development team implemented the designs and eventually made some modifications.
Before
- Client described site as "Busy and Spammy".
- Hierarchy was not well defined.
- Advertising not displaying in an organized structure or format.
- The logo is hardly noticeable.
Research
- I tried to put together an organic color palette to help convey the idea that it is powered by people.
- The organization of sections in a unique and non-distracting manner was something I spent a lot of time researching.
- I researched many search engines to examine how they displayed supporting information.
Wireframes
- I wireframed every page using a custom grid (170/300/300/160px).
- The left side is dedicated to information pertaining to ChaCha as a company.
- Main and trending content is now placed in the center of the site.
- I experimented with designing a more interesting way to display the title of each content block.
Designs
- ChaCha's original site contained default blue links everywhere. I shifted the color to a darker, more desaturated tone.
- I organized the information to be more digestable for the user.
