Who uses the website & why?
Those looking to attend the Lititz Chocolate Walk. Site used to find day of the event, walking maps, & accommodations (as many attendants may travel from all over the country). The site is also used to purchase tickets to the event.
What is the main reason for the website?
See above.
If anything could be added/changed about the website, what would it be?
A redesign is needed, but there has been no urgency since it hasn't been affecting sales—tickets always sell out. Also, there is little money for a redesign since the Kiwanis Club operates with the help of volunteers & donations.
When I heard about the volunteer efforts, especially those who help out with the chocolate walk, I wondered if the site was used for prospective volunteers to get information about volunteering for the Lititz Chocolate Walk, but the site is strictly for visitors.
And on the subject of needing a redesign, the Kiwanis Club would be open to students doing a redesign for their official site!
Design Objectives
To review, the goals of this project are two-fold: to redesign a site that has been poorly designed AND to make it responsive. Redesigning for the Lititz Chocolate Walk is going to be a significant undertaking, but I have high hopes for it.
First & foremost to work on is going to be creating organization & hierarchy. Right now everything is all over the place. It's hard to tell what is important information & what may be ads or less important footer or subpage material, what is content & what is a link. It's even hard to find the name of the event.
An important part of organizing the site is going to be creating a clear navigation to guide visitors logically through the site's information. Subpages will be easy to find & well organized.
Though my idea for the visual design is still in the abstract, there are a number of things I would definitely like to accomplish. As this is an event website, visuals of the event tend to be very important. Photographs from the actual event will be nearly impossible to get, but imagery of some sort will be very important in creating the atmosphere of the event & giving visitors a better idea of the event they may be attending.
I would like to in some way emphasize the quaintness of Lititz as well. Lititz is one of my favorite local small towns. It just has such a charm to it that I feel will be a draw for many out-of-town visitors. As well, using some sort of Lititz-centric imagery could also emphasize the community aspect of this event. It's hosted by the community, sponsored by the community, all to help those in need in the community.
Of course, this being a chocolate walk, chocolate will be a very important theme in the website's visual design. I browsed through Smashing Magazine's Showcase of Sweet Chocolate Websites to see what exactly well-designed chocolate websites are doing. I imagine brown will be a large proponent of the site's color scheme. I haven't yet decided if I want to do a sort of large brown texture, or use brown very lightly. I played around too with the idea of pulling some design from the Wilbur's Chocolate Company building.
To sum up the visual side of this design, I'm hoping to emphasize through the design chocolate, community, & the atmosphere of the event.
Persona
To help understand the needs & wants of potential site visitors, I created a persona in the form of Diana Bonomo, a non-profit project manager & avid traveler looking to attend the Lititz Chocolate Walk.
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