Interactive Design - Project 2
26/09/2024 - 02/01/2025/ Week 1 - Week 14
GUAN YAXIN / 0370687
Interactive Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
INTRODUCTION
Website Redesign Prototype
Brief overview
The prototype aims to redesign Lipton’s existing website by addressing its usability issues, improving its aesthetic appeal, and enhancing the user experience (UX). The redesign focuses on creating a modern, visually appealing, and user-friendly interface aligned with the brand’s identity, promoting tea products, and emphasizing health and sustainability.
Main Features of the Prototype
Intuitive Navigation
The prototype includes an improved navigation bar with some classification options, which makes it easy for users to access different content. The navigation supports both desktop and mobile views, ensuring responsive functionality.
Enhanced Visual Hierarchy
By organizing content into clearly defined sections, the prototype introduces a structured layout that highlights featured products, promotional content, and educational information about tea benefits.
Modern Aesthetic and Color Palette
The design incorporates earthy tones, such as muted yellows and greens, alongside clean layouts. This reflects the brand’s identity and resonates with the themes of nature, freshness, and relaxation.
Interactive Elements
Features like product quizzes, comment sections, and hover effects on images create an engaging experience for users. These additions make browsing enjoyable and interactive.
Responsive Design
The prototype ensures seamless browsing across devices by employing responsive layouts. Content adapts fluidly between desktop, tablet, and mobile views, maintaining a consistent user experience.
Optimized Loading Speed
The design incorporates delayed loading for images and optimized media assets to ensure quick page responses. This is critical for user retention and satisfaction.
Design Decisions and Their Rationale
Several strategic decisions were made to address the issues identified in the original website and achieve the redesign goals outlined in the project proposal:
1. Improving Navigation
Why: The original navigation was simple but lacked clear categorization, making it difficult for users to find specific products.
How: The redesigned navigation bar is concise, allowing users to find what they need efficiently, thus further enhancing usability.
2. Content Organization
Why: The original website's irregular information arrangement hindered users from quickly accessing key content.
How: The prototype organizes content into distinct sections:
Featured Products: Displays popular or new arrivals prominently.
Educational Content: Includes sections on the health benefits of tea and Lipton’s commitment to sustainability.
User Reviews and Testimonials: Builds trust by showcasing customer experiences.
3. Visual Aesthetic and Branding
Why: The original design lacked unique visual appeal and could fatigue users due to its high-brightness colors.
How: The redesign adopts a softer, nature-inspired color palette (greens, yellows, and earthy tones) to improve readability and evoke relaxation. High-quality, lifestyle-oriented imagery aligns with the brand’s fresh and natural ethos.
4. Mobile Optimization
Why: Many users access websites via mobile devices, and the original site had inconsistent layouts on smaller screens.
How: The prototype adopts a fully responsive design, which ensures a unified experience across devices and improves the usability of mobile devices.
5. Performance Enhancements
Why: The original site’s slow loading speed, especially for image-heavy pages, detracted from user satisfaction.
How: The redesign incorporates optimized image sizes, lazy loading techniques, and minimized scripts to improve performance and load times.
Prototype Goals and Implementation of Objectives
Goal 1: Improve Usability
Prototypes achieve this goal by simplifying navigation, reorganizing content, and so on.
Goal 2: Enhance Visual Appeal
Through the use of a modern color palette, clean typography, and lifestyle-oriented imagery, the prototype creates a fresh and inviting aesthetic. The inclusion of visual hierarchy ensures that important information and calls-to-action stand out.
Goal 3: Strengthen Brand Identity
The redesign aligns closely with Lipton’s values of health, relaxation, and sustainability. Elements like nature-inspired visuals, educational content, and sustainability-focused messaging reinforce the brand’s image.
Goal 4: Ensure Accessibility
The prototype incorporates accessible design principles, including alternative text for images, sufficient contrast ratios for text, and responsive layouts that work seamlessly across devices.
Key Challenges and Solutions
Challenge 1: Ensuring the site remains visually appealing while addressing usability concerns.
Solution 1: By combining structured layouts with interactive elements, the design balances functionality and aesthetics.
Challenge 2: Maintaining consistency across multiple devices.
Solution 2: Responsive design techniques ensure the layout adapts fluidly to different screen sizes without compromising content clarity.
Challenge 3: Improving load times without sacrificing image quality.
Solution 3: Compressing images and implementing lazy loading reduces page weight while preserving visual impact.
Prototype as a Realization of the Redesign Goals
The prototype effectively implements the redesign goals outlined in the proposal. By addressing the shortcomings of the original website, such as poor navigation, cluttered layouts, and limited interactivity, the prototype provides a user-friendly and visually appealing experience that aligns with Lipton’s brand values.
Key Achievements
Streamlined User Journeys: Simplified navigation and intuitive content organization make it easier for users to explore the site and find desired products.
Elevated Brand Perception: The modern aesthetic and nature-inspired visuals enhance the site’s alignment with Lipton’s image as a health-focused, sustainable brand.
Increased Engagement: Interactive features and responsive design create a dynamic and enjoyable browsing experience.
Conclusion
The prototype successfully transforms Lipton’s website into a modern, user-friendly platform that meets the needs of its target audience—health-conscious tea lovers. By combining intuitive navigation, engaging visuals, and interactive features, the design not only enhances usability but also strengthens the brand’s identity and appeal.
This redesign positions Lipton to better connect with its audience and achieve its goals of promoting sustainability, health, and relaxation. With further refinement, the prototype can serve as a foundation for developing a fully functional and impactful website.
Experience
An excellent website should have good functionality and aesthetics, balance visual appeal and usability, and maintain the consistency of equipment, so as to bring a good user experience.
Observation
Designing a website needs to adhere to the user-centered idea, conform to the theme, consider the overall tone, attach importance to interactive elements, and improve the responsive design technology.
Findings
Integrate the ability of responsive design and handling different equipment requirements to ensure that the website can reach a wide range of users.
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