Website Redesign @ UCLA Korean Culture Night
A visual and interactive makeover for UCLA KCN's website
Web Design
OVERVIEW
UCLA Korean Culture Night (KCN) is an annual student-run theatrical production celebrating Korean culture at UCLA. KCN’s website should serve as the digital home, providing information to visitors in a meaningful and informative way, but fails to do so. The redesign involved a reconstructed information architecture, a new design system, and site optimization, resulting in an enhanced user experience and a significant increase in site traffic.
TIMELINE
August 2022 - April 2023 9 months
TEAM & ROLE
Individual UX Researcher & Web Designer
TOOLS
Figma, WordPress, HTML/CSS, Google Forms
Pointing Out the Problem
KCN’s site traffic was near zero, indicating that users had no reason to visit the website. Furthermore, the website sported a dark, unpleasant color scheme and had several usability issues. Also, except for a few changes in text and pictures, the website has not been updated since its development.
Knowing the User
Informal Conversations
To start, I talked with individuals who attended the 2022 KCN production, asking them about their experience with KCN’s website. During these conversations, I discovered startling realities about KCN and the website.
❓
Website?
People did not even know that a website existed for UCLA Korean Culture Night.
🤔
Notifications
The website was visually unappealing to people who did visit the website.
🕰️
Outdated Info
People also noticed that the information on the website was outdated.
User Surveys
I surveyed eight people to understand their experience of the KCN production itself. The survey participants included both audience members and performers.
📝
Defining UCLA KCN
People defined UCLA Korean Culture Night as a night of performances ranging from theater to dance, emphasizing Korean culture.
🔍
Discovering UCLA KCN
Most people discovered Korean Culture Night either through word-of-mouth from friends or through social media.
🗺️
Navigating UCLA KCN
People were confused on the show day because they didn't know where they were supposed to go.
🙌
Enjoying UCLA KCN
People overall rated Korean Culture Night as a positive experience, noting the high energy of the night.
Assessing the Problem
Heuristic Evaluation
To identify usability issues of the current website, I conducted a heuristic evaluation of each webpage.
Competitive Analysis
After the heuristic evaluation, I realized that the KCN website lacked certain pages that other performing arts websites had. So, I conducted a competitive analysis of the above performing arts sites and came up with a list of the pages that KCN's website should have.
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Home Page
An engaging, fun page that welcomes users and reflects brand identity.
🎟️
Tickets Page
A page that contains information about the event and ways to get tickets.
💬
About Page
A page that highlights the organization's mission and history.
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Support Page
A page that showcases sponsors and directs users to make donations.
Stakeholder Interview
Along with users, the website will also be used by the KCN executive team. In my meeting with the producer, we discussed handling recruitment and ticketing through the website.
Thus, an Apply Page to post recruitment applications would not only streamline recruitment but also enhance the professionalism of the organization.
💼
Apply Page
A page for posting open positions, job descriptions, and application instructions.
Devising and Implementing Solutions
Social Media Marketing
Because most people discovered KCN through either friends or social media, I proposed to the producers of KCN to add the website link on our social media pages.
This integration with social media allows users to visit the website if they are checking out KCN through social media, thereby increasing site traffic.
New Design System
In place of the dark, outdated design of the old website, the new design system features modern typography, bright cultural colors, and more interactive UI elements.
This change makes the website a better representation of KCN’s brand and offers a more enjoyable experience to users.
Redesigned Pages
Using my findings from the competitive analysis, I redesigned the pages to make KCN’s website similar to other performing arts websites. Thus, the new website presents users with a familiar interface, and now, they know exactly what to expect when they interact with the website.
Especially with the Tickets page, users are provided with event details and directions, thus providing them a centralized location to access information on the day of the show.
New Recruitment
Integrating recruitment into the website benefits not only KCN’s image but also users. Users typically find recruitment applications on social media when they are on their phones, which are difficult devices to complete applications.
However, by adding a recruitment page on the website, users can easily access and complete the application on their computers.
Measuring Success
User Interviews
After launching the new website, I conducted interviews with five people to gauge the user experience of the redesign.
Overall, users enjoyed using the website and felt that it was overall easy to use.
🎨
Design
"I really love the new design! It's much better than the old one."
⚙️
Usefulness
"Wait, the Apply and the Tickets page was such a good idea!"
✅
Ease
"I would say this website is pretty easy to use. I know where to go if I need anything."
Site Stats
When starting this redesign, one of the goals was to boost site viewership and traffic. Overall, the redesign led to an increase from near 0 to over 1,000!
Final Remarks
Next Steps
Because of time constraints, accessibility was not a priority for this project, but it would be a great next step to make KCN’s website more accessible.
Another possible direction to take this project is to implement responsive design as the website adjusts to different screen sizes.
LESSON
Marketing and UX
This project taught me that fulfilling both marketing and UX objectives is still doable and challenged me to ideate solutions that would resolve both types of problems. Business objectives and UX are not necessarily the opposite of each other.
LESSON
Building New Skills
This project allowed me to tackle a variety of problems and venture into different UX fields. I was conducting interviews and surveys, creating a design system, coding a little in HTML and CSS, and looking at other sites for inspiration. As my first major project, redesigning KCN’s website has allowed me to wear different hats and turn me into a better UX designer.