Redemptive Cycles

REDEMPTIVECYCLES is a non-profit bike shop located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. They believe that getting more people on bikes makes Birmingham a more well-connected, vibrant and livable city.

UI/UX Designer
July 11, 2019 - July 23, 2019
Self-Directed (Mentor/Peer feedback)
Note: This project was part of a course assignment through Designlab’s UX Academy. All research and design is based on real user interviews as well as feedback from mentors and fellow students. I am in no way affiliated with Redemptive Cycles.

The Challenge

They have approached us to update their website and make it responsive. This will allow them to reach more people and provide more opportunities for those interested in biking and becoming more involved in the bike community within Birmingham.

The Solution

• Design a responsive website that is easy to use and that allows customers to browse through all products, programs and volunteer opportunities.
• To updated the brand style and give it a fresh feel through color and imagery.
• Placing emphasis on their social media channels is also of high priority.
PHASE 1

Research

To get started, I researched the cycling industry, local bike shops, looked at direct and indirect competitors within the space and conducted user interviews. Below are my findings.
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
App Audit

Market Research

I first looked into Redemptive Cycles and its business direction. I found that, yes they are a bike shop, but ultimately they are an outreach to the city. They provide multiple opportunities for the community to get involved not only with the bike shop, but around the city. With market research, I was able to get a better understanding of the cycling industry. This includes demographics, trends and challenges.
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Competitive Analysis

With the cycling industry being such a large market, it is critical to understand both direct and indirect competitors. This will help Redemptive Cycles set themselves apart from their competition. Strangely enough, there were not any direct competitors for Redemptive Cycles within the local market. This allows them to set themselves apart and provide a service that no one else can.
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User Interviews

I conducted several user interviews in order to collect information about their overall experience with Redemptive Cycles - both in their shop and online. Of the interviewees, 4 were male and 2 were female. All the interviewees fall between the ages of 30 - 49. Through these interviews I was able to learn more about who Redemptive Cycles' customers are and how the business interacts with them.
PHASE 2

Define

In order to define the target user and cultivate empathy, I first constructed an empathy map based on the contextual inquiry interviews performed. From here I was able to see the users' needs and most common patterns from these users. This allowed me to create a Persona and begin exploring solutions to those needs.
Empathy Map
Persona
POV Statements + HMW Questions

Empathy Map

After talking with Redemptive Cycles' customers, I constructed an empathy map by organizing the data points from each interview participant into groups. This allowed me to clearly see user needs and common patterns within that data.
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Persona

Once I organized the data using an empathy map, I was able to create a persona based on these findings. This persona reflects the target user for Redemptive Cycles. With "Jason", we can better empathize with the target user throughout the design process.
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POV Statements + HMW Questions

After defining the target user, I created point-of-view (POV) statements to frame the insights and user needs. From these statements, I took it a step further and created how-might-we (HMW) questions to help encourage solutions for Jason's needs.
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PHASE 3

Ideate

Everyone needs goals and so do our users and Redemptive Cycles. Here we explored both business and user goals, laying out the foundation of organization for our new website. We then followed this up with visually seeing how a user might navigate through our new proposed website.
Business & User Goals
Brainstorming
Product Roadmap
Sitemap
Task & User Flows

Business & User Goals

To start, I organized both business and user goals into one document by taking goals from the Persona and business goals from the brief. I then identified shared goals and added some technical considerations as well.
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Product Roadmap

Next, I referenced the how-might-we questions, brainstormed as many solutions as I could and chose several features to prioritize within the website. From here, I began organizing these features into the product roadmap. This allowed me to focus on the features that would be the most beneficial to both the user and business goals previously defined. Each of these goals were also given a priority level.
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Sitemap

Next, I created a sitemap in order to visualize how the information can be structured, allowing a user to navigate the site with ease.
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Task Flow

To better understand how users will navigate through the site performing specific tasks, I produced a task flow diagram. This allowed me to think through the user's process and make sure all possible pages are developed to help the user gain the information they need.
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User Flow

I also created some user flow diagrams. These helped me think through different scenarios while a user explores the site and gets the information they are searching for.
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PHASE 4

Design

I began the process with sketching out different versions of the home page based on the user feedback and data gathered from previous activities. I then proceeded to add more context to these sketches through mid-fidelity wireframes.
Sketches
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

Sketches

To begin generating ideas for layout of the website, I sketched out several low-fidelity wireframes of pages we identified based on the sitemap. I added annotation so that sections were clearly defined allowing me to gather quick feedback from testers and peers.
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Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

I took my low-fidelity sketches and reproduced the chosen layout in Sketch to create a mid-fidelity wireframe. I also created both tablet and mobile views for several of the pages to understand the responsive layout. Going through this process helps me think about overall hierarchy and visual layout of the website.
PHASE 5

Prototype

During the prototyping phase, I applied the elements from the logo and branding assets to the mid-fidelity wireframes in InVision App to create a high-fidelity prototype. This is the prototype I had participants test, going through a few different user tasks.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing

Mid-Fidelity Prototype

To make sure the design I put together functioned the way it should, allowing users to gain the information they were looking for, I created a mid-fidelity prototype using InVision. I used this prototype to conduct usability testing as you will see in the following step.

Usability Testing

I conducted 5 in-person interviews and had each participant perform certain tasks. I was able to collect valuable usability feedback from each participant.

Test Objectives
• Test if users can accomplish tasks successfully
• Identify areas of difficulty with the website design that can be improved
• Determine the overall usability of the website

Tasks
• Find information about group rides
• Choose a group ride to attend
• Find out information on volunteering
• Get in touch with Redemptive about volunteering
PHASE 6

Iterate

Taking the results and findings from the affinity map, I was able to come up with a few recommendations for improvement on the website. I applied these recommendations and further developed the prototype as well as the branding assets/UI kit.
Affinity Map
Branding
High-Fidelity Wireframes + Prototype
UI Kit

Affinity Map

After conducting the usability testing, I was able to identify key insights and generate the top recommendations from test users through an affinity map. Taking these recommendations, I now had areas of the site I could improve upon, making for a better user experience.
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Branding

Before moving into the high-fidelity wireframes, I created branding guidelines to bring more cohesion to the Redemptive Cycles' brand. To help with this process, I created a mood board using Pinterest and chose some adjectives to help define the Redemptive brand. A few of those being reliable, creative and friendly. I chose to keep Redemptive Cycles' original logo and introduce new colors and typography.
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High-Fidelity Wireframes + Prototype

Finally, I applied the branding and styling to the wireframes in Sketch and made an updated prototype using InVision. The new prototype shows the updated look and feel.

UI Kit

Once I began prototyping, I maintained a UI kit throughout the process. This document keeps all of the UI elements and patterns in one place for easy reference.
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Wrapup

Overall, I felt I learned a good bit about both the cycling industry and how that industry plays a role in the local market. I believe I was able to get a better understanding of how to interact with users by conducting interviews and improving on an existing brand, yet maintaining that brands core standards.

Next Steps

• Continue organizing and improving the design deliverables
• Continue gaining feedback from users
• Work with developers to implement the design and features of the new website