May 2022 - August 2022
Revitalized Member Portal:
A Solo Freelance Endeavor
Transformed a learning specialist subscriber platform through lean product development to elevate accessibility and acquisition.
Winning the Website Contract
Through my work-study at my graduate university, I secured this extensive freelance contract recommended by my boss. It marked a culmination of years of successful side hustling, where I took on diverse roles, ensuring timely execution as a project manager, WordPress developer, UX researcher, and designer.
Goal: Revitalize an outdated website
The existing platform, constrained by a rigid subscriber CMS, lacked customization, accessibility, and intuitive navigation.
The project's primary objectives were to enable users to navigate with ease, craft a personalized post-sign-on experience, and strengthen overall user access.
Understanding where things went left
The site's end users, members of the Learning Specialists Association of Canada, faced findability issues. Through meetings with over 20 community members, heuristic evaluations, and tree testing it became evident that the key problem was users not knowing where to find information, leading many to bookmark crucial pages.
Defining design requirements to stay on track
To drive the execution of our MVP, I established clear design requirements: streamline navigation by placing items intuitively, emphasize exclusive benefits for paid members, and visually simplify the outdated website for enhanced user-friendliness.
before
the original design was overwhelming and made the process of finding and selecting a resource was tedious and frustrating.
after
using hick's law, the design aimed to break down the choices to minimize options to decrease cognitive load. through card sort studies, the categories were created.
before
home page struggled with....
after
home page struggled with....
before
home page struggled with....
after
home page struggled with....
Design to Development with WordPress
As the sole contributor to the project, I was also responsible for developing the final product. I chose to use WordPress because of its user-friendly interface, extensive plugin ecosystem, design flexibility, and scalability. After four months of research and design iterations, I allocated one month to site development, leaving just over two weeks for QA before launch.
Changing routes amid plugin challenges
During development, I encountered a plugin limitation, necessitating a workaround. I originally planned locked pages within one menu but created two schemes, improving post-sign on personalization. Although it required extra QA time to ensure security, I managed to leverage existing development efficiencies.
PROPOSED:
Locked pages within one menu
FINAL SOLUTION:
Two schemes
From dreams to reality
Launched on time with minimal issues, a special moment as the site coincided with the association's official not-for-profit status.
Key Metrics
The site launch succeeded, witnessing growth in repeat visitors and time spent on the site. Utilizing Google Data Studio, I crafted a live dashboard for convenient, on-the-go access by board members.
10K
Unique visitors
Post non-profit transition, the site saw a 10% average of new members in the first few months.
18%
Bounce Rate
Decreased bounce rate, increased funnel flows suggest active navigation over bookmarking.
+5x
Increase in time on page
Users averaged over 2 minutes on the page, signaling valuable and relevant content.
Personal
Reflection
This project marked a significant milestone in my freelance journey. Originating with a single freelance client, my career has evolved into its current state through a series of transformative experiences. The journey involved extensive learning in client management, contracting, full-stack development using CMS, product development, project management, and more. Each subsequent contract has been progressively more demanding, yielding positive outcomes that affirm my skills in this field—something that fills me with pride.