Centaur Strength Marketing/ Booking Website
Overview
I recently had a client approach me about building a website for his new strength training business that he was starting up. I jumped at the chance to help him out. I've had the pleasure of building many different types of websites, but this one was especially fun for me due to the complex nature of a booking feature, a shop, and setting up a custom invoice URL system.
Discovery
For the beginning stages of this project, I spent a few meetings interviewing the owner and seeing what he wanted from his website.
• What is the purpose of the site?
• Who is the primary audience you are trying to reach?
• What functionality is needed for your website to enhance customer engagement?
• What goals indicate the success of the new website?
After asking these questions, along with a few more- I was able to start working on a content outline.
A content outline provides an array of fantastic early-stage structures for me. I can focus and refine the content without being too concerned with the actual design of the project. I can write out the entire website on paper and hone in on crafting an excellent message. Basing most of my decisions on market research, as well as UX strategies to increase engagement and improve the overall site experience.
Once the content outline has been created, I presented it to my client to make sure we were on the same page, and that he was good with our plan.
Wireframing
The wireframing process begins with a workflow map visual for me. This puts all of my content into a structured file system. I can easily manipulate, change, and organize the content that I have created into a productive flow.
When creating the wireframes, the entire goal is to make sure that the structure of my content is working within the website. For Centaur Strength, I wanted to make sure that I had a strong foundation for highlighting the download training PDFs, scheduling training with a coach, and getting a page visitor to see their need for a strength training coach. With those main factors driving the concepts, I built out the entire site structure.
Using the wireframing process as a guide to the final product really allowed me to focus my efforts on the UX piece of the site. As I mentioned before, I wanted to make sure that a page visitor could see their need for a strength training coach and then be able to act on it very easily. Many CTAs lead to the content I wanted to highlight, as well as building trust in who the coach is.
I was then able to present these wireframes to the owner to see his thoughts. After a round of presenting, and then tweaking I had the green light to do the full mock designs.
Designs
These UI design mocks are made much easier due to the content work I put in upfront. With all of the structure and content nailed down, I could then focus my attention on the website's look and feel. This process is always one of my favorites. Being able to create/take the branding material and bring it to life really allows my creative juices to flow. My goal was to create a sort of moody, gothic, mystic sort of UI for the site. Something you would expect when you think of a mythical creature that is combined with strength training. Curating the UI to fit the target audience was really important to me.
Final Thoughts
As I mentioned before, being able to work on a wide array of projects has given me great insight into different user bases, features, client needs, and UI trends. This website was especially enjoyable to build due to the complexity of the needs of a shop, a booking feature, and marketing to a user base that needs to be shown value in a product. My client was very happy about how the site has turned out and especially loves the automation of the feature that I designed and built. The complexity of certain features was made much easier by the foundation work I put in upfront. The discovery and wireframing pieces are very vital to the rest of the project, as I can tell the difference in my final designs.