Sveriges Kommunikatörer is a membership organization in Sweden with over 5 000 members. They offer webinars, courses and networking event for both professionals and soon-to-be communicators.
Before I joined this project they had already set the scope, budget and deadline. Their previous website was okay visually, but it was lacking technically. Our mission at first was to update to the latest version on Optimizely. But while working on this project, things changed as they hired a design agency to redo their whole graphic manual.
The agency introduced many different colors and combinations, new typography and new graphic elements. Even a redesigned logo. All of these things were to be implemented on the new website, which wasn't really in the scope – but we adapted to it.
On the previous website there were many challenges for the editors. For instance, Sveriges Kommunikatörer sell courses with different formats; At location, distance, hybrid or on demand. If a course had all of those options available, they had to create four copies of a page with the same information – apart from what format it had. Which also meant four teasers.
In the new solution they only need one page, and one teaser for a course – as all the formats can be displayed on the teaser and page.
They also have different color themes to choose from on every page they're creating. And everything on that page includes blocks the required color combinations. The only page that is different is the start page, where all different kinds of combinations are acceptable (according to the design agency).
My role
I was part of a card sorting workshop with the client, and a little on the side in the beginning as there was another designer working with the design agency to create the initial design concept. While having meetings with the design agency I provided insights about color contrasts for accessibility, as that was a big topic for Sveriges Kommunikatörer.
At the beginning I also helped with the layout for the hero.
When the concept was finished, and approved by the client, I took over the case and continued working on other page types. The most complex part was the formats for courses, and here I made many sketches on paper and wireframes until I came up with the most suitable idea.
All the time during the project I had a dialogue with the developers, to make sure the ideas I presented were doable – before presenting them to the client.
The scope wasn't really cut out for all design changes and to avoid consuming a lot of hours on my side, we decided that I would skip most mobile and tablet sketches. I had a great dialogue with the frontend developer and if he needed something he would tell me. Mostly he just shared the screen and showed me what it looked like and we would discuss the responsiveness.
The biggest challenge for me
I've reflected some on this case, and I think the biggest challenge for me was taking over someone else's concept. It's one thing following guidelines in a graphic manual, which I've done numerous of times. But another thing to work from someone else's design concept as well as taking over their work file.
But next to that, it was designing the user flow for the courses.
