Westside MMA 🥊

The first step was go through WestsideMMA and see any potential problems that had enough significance for a redesign. I came across multiple problems within the website however, I decided to focus on 2 main problems that I've identified which was the scheduling page (which is also connected to the timetable page, account access page and membership pricing) and the navigation bar with its labelling.
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The next step was to provide proof that these problems that I've identified are also problems to users through running appropriate UX tests on the existing interface. I conducted a:

Usability Test
One problem that lies within Westside MMA’s page is the scheduling page. The reason for this method is due to the nature of the problem. Getting participants to do a usability test allows me to visually see how they navigate through the schedule page and how efficient they'd go through the set out tasks.

Tree Test
Seeing as features such as create an account and pricing of memberships hidden within the schedule page, it seemed fitting to use a tree test to prove a need for a restructure of their information architecture and navigation bar labels.

First Click Test
There’s similarities between schedule tab and timetable, so using the first click test could prove confusion of labelling issues.

Usability Test
From the results of all 3 participants on the usability tests, there’s been a mixture of results to synthesize. As expected, most about 2/3 participants did fail, with a frequency of 66% where the participants have failed to complete the task, proving an issue of navigating through the schedule page.

Tree Test
From the first test result, it was clear that the “create an account” tree test resulted in the majority of failures, with participants struggling to click on the correct tabs to create or access an account. The second test was no different; from the results, it was clear that the “membership pricing” tree test resulted in a lot of failures, with participants struggling to click on the correct tabs.
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First Click Test
From the results, across the 10 participants, there had been 50% who clicked on timetable (the incorrect path), while 30% clicked on schedule, with a few going towards the shop tab. As predicted, users would be confused about which tab to click on to look into the availability of classes. These two both provide the information needed for users to complete the task; however, one is more easily readable while the other focuses on registering for classes. This shows a clear need for labelling changes.

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From the data, it proved the need for changes and so it was time to generate ideas that surrounded the scheduling page and reorganise the content into new and different labelled tabs on the navigational bar.

With a few more designs specific to the schedule page, the next step was to get participants to do a preference test, seeing what screen sketch they'd prefer the most to least and why. This would help me make a decision on the final concept or completely redesign more concepts if needed. 

After analysing the results, the most preferred option was the highlighted concept above. This was the basis for developing the digital wireframes. I also considered the features and ideas from the next highly ranked concept, seeing as few participants liked a few features from other concepts as well. 

On a more smaller scale, the next step is to do the same initial test on the original design, against the redesign to see if the near final product was more effective.

In comparing the first few tests to the redesign tests, there were clear signs of effectiveness of the design, the time on task and error rates had reduced significantly.
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To summarise, one of the core problems was the information architecture. The membership details were hidden on the schedule page, under "my account.” Timetable and schedule were under two separate tabs, which made it confusing to know where to find what since they are both similar in terms of definition. They also have a small, unseeable shopping cart feature to buy memberships that doesn’t display all the types of memberships on offer.

The main insights I had with Westside MMA’s website were that it was an opportunity to look at existing websites and redesign them rather than designing a whole product from scratch. It was interesting to see the small differences within the UX process in comparison to developing a new idea. With the redesign of Westside MMA’s scheduling page, users will be able to access classes more swiftly through the repositioning and structuring of certain elements.
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Personally, this project has brought me deep into the iterative process of UX design, which is more specific to a redesign. It was interesting to breakdown an existing product, build upon and/or break it down, and see its potential user problems that I could fix. Being a place I go to as a hobby, it was fun and helpful to also visualise ways to improve the user experience. 

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