From Stage to Screen: Designing a Digital Spotlight for Rhonda Sweat
Rhonda Sweat is a multi-faceted professional poised to launch a new phase of her career in corporate comedy. As a comedian, host, and coach, Rhonda needed a compelling online platform to showcase her skills and services and to facilitate client bookings. With a scheduled launch for her corporate comedy events on July 1st, she sought a web design to establish her online presence, appeal to her target audience — for-profit and non-profit organizations, churches, and community groups — and efficiently manage her services.
Rhonda's main challenge was the lack of an existing online presence and the short timeline to establish one. Given her demanding schedule as an upper management professional during the day and a comedian at night, Rhonda had limited time to invest in the website creation process. She also needed guidance to crystallize her vision for the site.
To initiate the process, a foundational meeting clarified her objectives: a professional site detailing her services, easy booking capabilities, and flexibility in presenting her event schedule. Despite Rhonda's uncertainty about design details, her vision took shape through collaborative exploration, including reviewing several competitor websites. She gravitated towards striking designs with a black background, intending to incorporate engaging videos of her performances.
Research
A comprehensive analysis of competitor websites was conducted, especially in the comedian and motivational speaker segments. These insights, combined with Rhonda's preferences, such as her fondness for vibrant colors, guided our design strategy.
Ideation & Design Process
Initial sketches provided Rhonda with a visual grasp of potential layouts. Transitioning to Figma wireframes added depth to the visualization, allowing Rhonda to articulate her preferences more distinctly.
Although Rhonda's initial choice of bold yellow didn't resonate when paired with her selected images, a harmonious blend of her preferences and best design practices was achieved after multiple design iterations.
Design Details: The final design featured:
Hero Section: Showcased Rhonda prominently alongside her tagline, "It's OK to Laugh."
Navigation: Clear, user-friendly, and comprehensive.
Service Page: A deeper dive into Rhonda’s offerings – Comedy, Motivational Speaking, Hosting.
About Page: Insights into Rhonda’s journey.
Contact Page: Simplified user interaction for inquiries and bookings.
User Testing & Feedback
Post-design, user testing identified two main concerns. Firstly, the website had slow loading times due to unoptimized images. Optimization swiftly addressed this, leading to a significant improvement in page speed.
Secondly, while we intended to incorporate video content of Rhonda's performances to enhance her online presence, the video file sizes were too large for direct integration. Rhonda was hesitant to utilize YouTube as a hosting platform at this stage.
We've planned to revisit this aspect in the future to determine the best approach. Despite these challenges, the post-optimization feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the site for its intuitive navigation and clear access to information.
Final Solution & Results
The final website design emphasized Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to increase visibility. The site provides users with an engaging, easy-to-navigate online platform to learn about Rhonda's services and directly contact her for bookings.
Post-launch, the website has seen a 15% increase in page views, demonstrating improved user engagement. Crucial learning from this project was the importance of optimizing images for site performance.
Conclusion
This project emphasized the importance of empathy in UX design. It highlighted the need to listen to clients and be mindful of their verbal and non-verbal cues. To make the design process less overwhelming for the client, the project necessitated explaining design concepts in depth, breaking down the design process, and allowing the client ample time to make informed decisions. The website can be found at www.Iamrhondasweat.com.