Summary
EllisLab needed a website to present, sell and rally the community around ExpressionEngine CMS. The website was to provide the information a potential customer needed to make a purchasing decision, a way to make that purchase, a place for the community to interact and engage with the EllisLab team, and a path to get official support directly from the developers of the product.
In addition to the general website needs, the business goals included increasing product sales, and improving first party educational resources for new and existing customers.
Proposal
The first step for this project was to listen to the client’s needs and wants, which I took and distilled into a preliminary site map. Creating a site map for this project accomplished two goals, 1. EllisLab and I now had a defined language to speak when discussing the site and it’s many sections and pages, and 2. It gave us a literal map for developing the website’s code base and channel structure.
After we agreed on a site map and structure for the new website, I set on the task of wire framing the pages and sections, once we had approved direction, I began designing the UI and visuals for the new site.
My goal with the design was to create something that looked curated, and art directed, but was also modular and easy to tweak and add to, so that we could A/B test pages, and add new sections and pages without having to start from scratch each time.
Once the design was approved and ready, I wrote the HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I worked with the EllisLab development team to integrate the design and special features into ExpressionEngine CMS. This included a commerce solution, a support ticketing system, a bug tracker, and discussion forum.
Practice
For this project, I practiced UX Design (research, wireframes, and user journeys), UI Design, HTML/CSS/Javascript and ExpressionEngine CMS integration. Additionally I co-managed the project from discovery to launch.
