The goal for this redesign was to collaborate with a copywriter and SEO specialist to restructure the information architecture to make the courses and upcoming diving trips the main focus of the website. It was also a priority to optimize design and usability on desktop and mobile.
We created a plan for the design process, starting with the define phase of looking at the problems that we could identify in the current information architecture and hierarchy of content importance. Then we planned to conduct competitive research on local dive shops and larger indirect competitors and their common designs patterns and practices. The next step was the design phase where I would create the design deliverables and the copywriter would complete copy and SEO, followed by stakeholder evaluation and final iterations. This project took place over the course of one month which allowed about one week for each phase.
I did a competitive analysis of diving shop's websites in the local area. I found that many of them had a lot of disorganization in their information architecture. It was often very difficult to discern the call to action on a page or to choose from an overwhelming amount of options. I detected a lot of opportunities for improvement for information hierarchy, especially for diving courses and diving trips.
I discovered that there were consistent pain points that existed across the client's website and local direct competitors:
I created an information architecture diagram to organize the content by order of importance for navigation. PADI and Dive Travel are the highest priority and have been organized into smaller sub categories. Equipment, Calendar, About Us, and Blog were of lower importance but are still clear descriptions of content that are scannable.
I created sketches for the redesign of the homepage and the navigation. The navigation items are ordered in the same manner as the information architecture, with Home, PADI Courses, and Dive Travel as the highest priority, but the rest of the options are still scannable, clear, and discoverable. I also visualized different ways to organize the current content on the home page.
A lot of information architecture needed to be redone, as a lot of the courses were scattered through the website. There wasn't a consistent design or branding guide, most call to actions only led to calling the store. A lot of information was not updated and many design mistakes were made, such as using low quality images, using difficult to read fonts, and not having PDFs embedded correctly.
I restructured navigation and PADI course organization and made the information hierarchy and branding consistent across the website. The copywriter and SEO specialist rewrote all copy to direct the user through navigation more easily. I also improved visual design by using high quality images and fixing embedding and font issues, and calls to action were routed to signing up for courses and trips.
Final product images of Diver's Oasis website with restructured navigation, high quality images, updated course and trip information, and features such as countdown timers until the next trip. Information architecture has also been re-organized to prioritize courses and trips, while maintaining discoverability for other areas of the website without being overwhelming.
