Rosewood Arts Center
Website Redesign
Rosewood Arts Center presents opportunities for the Kettering and greater Dayton community to experience hands-on activities in visual and performing arts programs.
A division of the City of Kettering’s Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts, Rosewood presents over 400 classes annually for youth and adults, as well as gallery exhibitions, theater performances, artist studios, and special events.
The Problem
The Rosewood Arts Center is an important community center in the Dayton area that is focused on the arts. The current website lacks a fluid navigation system, a clean and modern interface, and cohesive and
up-to-date UI elements.
The Solution
Creating solutions for this website will match the level of impact that the Rosewood Arts Center has on the greater Dayton area. This website will improve through testing, wireframing, and design exploration. Each of these areas will contribute to fixing the site's navigation system, updating the dated interface, and creating cohesive UI elements.
Heuristic Audit
Navigation
The art center page and the gallery page feel like two separate websites.
The website lacks a fluid navigation system.
Buttons
Buttons and links do not stand out from the rest of
the website.
Copywriting
The copywriting on the Rosewood site is a positive.
Competitive Audit
The Blue House Arts
Navigation
The site has a traditional navigation system.
Users can lose their place when clicking through the site.
Design
The site has a consistent look that follows its brand identity.
Competitive Audit
Schuster Center
Navigation
The Schuster Center website is a part of the larger Dayton Live site.
Design
The Schuster Center has a defined brand that is modern and makes the site stand out.
Very information heavy, but all of the information is displayed attractively.
User Personas
These personas aided in the creation of a target audience. This was important because of the broad range of content the Rosewood site contains.
Recommendations
Design a clean and modern-looking interface
Define the Rosewood identity
Wireframe possible solutions
Create an effective navigation system
Create an updated sitemap.
Test navigation through card sorting and tree testing
Focus on creating harmonious buttons and links
Reduce the number of links that are present on the site.
Create a harmonious button style
Card Sorting
Card sorting shows how users would group different navigational topics. This helps create a navigation system because I can see how the user thinks through navigation.
Stats
Participants: 3
Average Time Taken: 16 Minutes
Age Range: 24–89
Tree Testing
Tree testing tells you how easily people can find information on your website and exactly where people get lost.
Stats
Participants: 2
Average Time Taken: 6 Minutes
Age Range: 26–67
Site Map
After completing the auditing portion of the project, I was able to take my findings and create a sitemap that addressed the navigational problems the original site contained.
This site map served as a great resource that aided in the creation of a better Rosewood site.
Wireframes
The wireframing portion of this project allowed me to combine information architecture with design ideas to create the site's core functions.
Style Tiles
Since this project focused on the research side of things, final designs were not required. Style tiles were a great way to compile my research and findings into a visual that shows the possible new direction of the Rosewood website.
Project Learnings
This project taught me so much more about user research and user testing. I learned how to give a variety of tests, including card sorting, tree testing, and in-person usability tests.
I used this new knowledge to create a better experience for the users of the Rosewood Arts Center website.
