Background
Site visitors could not find her published work and know whether she was reachable
In April 2022, Meryl was looking to redesign her website with the goal of showcasing her work, especially her published books, and making it clear that she was reachable for interviews, exhibits, licensing, speaking engagements. Because most of her photographs were of the 70s, it wasn't clear from her then website that she was still an active working artist.
She also wanted to be able to update her website and add new content on her own easily. It was very difficult for her to use her then Wordpress site.
Stylistically, she requested a design that was elegant and contemporary.
Website Audit
The site was cluttered and disorganized
Main problems of the website:
1. There are 2 pages for her 3 books, which was confusing per se. To add to the confusion, exhibitions shared the same titles, making it even hard to differentiate publications vs. exhibitions.
2On the"TV | Audio | Video Interviews" page was a long list of interviews of all types mixed together.
3. "Press" page was an overwhelming archive of all the news articles dating back to 1988, arranged haphazardly with inconsistent content.
Design Process Highlights
Information architecture reorganized and UX writing
1. To show she's active, I added “NYC based Photographer” under site logo & a footer for contact. Instead of saying "Contact", it says "Contact Meryl" as a hint that it reachers directly to her, and not an agency or gallery.
2. To promote her latest work, I used a slideshow on the homepage that showcase the work and links to the latest publication or exhibition.
3. Logos of publications were added to highlight her media coverage, and information architecture reorganized, sorted by year.
4. Throughout the process I kept in mind sections that she needed to be able to update herself later on, so it could be executed in development.
Iterations
Final Designs - Before & After
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