Innovative Architectural and Interior Design Firm
Summary
While working at my past Architectural Firm ( Frank Fernandez AIA LLC ) one of my last tasks before COVID hitting was to redesign the overall website that was first created in the early 2000s using basic HTML. The task was to convert the overall design into a modern portfolio website. First making a conceptual layout in Figma to be approved later then use React to create the website.
Getting Started
The overall challenge was taking the base HTML webpage and breaking down the Information Architecture to determine what is needed and what can be removed from the current webpage. From their, I researched into Competitors websites to view what is successful.
Platform
Mobile
Web
Skills
Ux Design
Ui Design
Ux Research
Strategy
Prototype
Front End Dev
Who is FFAIA?
F. Fernandez AIA LLC is located in North Bergen, NJ, United States and is part of the Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services Industry. F. Fernandez, AIA, LLC, prides itself on being a closely knit group - much like a family.
Understanding the Problem
Completive Research
Analyzing the current popular architectural websites to see what is the most successful, for reference were: Gensler, Perkins & Will, and Ennead.
Information Architecture
Analyzing the current website navigation from the perspective of a person interested in their services, they usually have a specific purpose. On the current site there are multiple interactions before you truly understand what is their specialty. Navigating is visual difficult because of the scale and the similarity of text and layout of pages which confuses which page you initially land on. From this I came up with this new navigation map where certain pages became more condensed and nest into current existing pages.
Starting the Design
Initial Wireframes
The user needs interesting features on the website along with a big visual language where the user can understand the overarch page with a simple look. They usually have a idea what they're interested in so they need an efficient way to see multiple buildings complete to get the overall aesthetic of the firm, or a feature that generates displays multiple projects at once on the landing page.
User Interviews
At the discovery phase of my project, I decided to conduct a user survey in order to get a better understanding of problems parents with children with autism are facing due to the switch to online learning.
In the upcoming phase of the project I will be conducting user interviews on teachers/monitors in the Monmouth County education system that are directed connected to special needs children's education.
Refining the design...
I continued developing this project and are currently working on transforming the mockup to a working React project.
What did I learn?
With being my first in depth website design I ran into difficulties with over all layout and figuring out how to make the transition between divisions smooth. I learn that it is very important to have specific anchor points on the page to grab the users attention to single out certain features. Going forward I will be translating this conceptual design in to a React project.