Ruppert is a Storytelling Designer
Writing skills are essential. Without good writing skills you can't convey your message. That's ultimately what
our clients are looking for in us as Designers. They want us to convey their message to the world.
Here you will see Case Studies that show writing skills mixed in with graphics to explain what the problems
are with the original pages. Of course, that is just one aspect of a case study. In my eyes a Case Study is identifying the problem and how you as a designer are going to fix it or how you plan on designing the original site. Ultimately, it's a game plan.
Fandom Redesign
This was a project for my Principles of Design
class. This was my first attempt at Case Studies
but the instructor told me it was very good
because it pointed out issues and solutions that
proved to be effective.
Purpose:
The purpose of this case study is to point out certain ways the Fandom website can increase their usability by "cleaning things up".
About:
So what is Fandom?
Fandom is an American-made wiki hosting service and domain operated by Fandom, Inc. a for-
profit Delaware company founded in October 2004
What is a Wiki hosting service though? According to Wikipedia, it is a service that is sometimes referred to as a Wiki Farm. Wiki hosting services should enable wiki-style editable web pages. Basically, it is a place for people to go to so they can discuss topics that interest them. In Fandom's case it is a Global Entertainment Media brand powered by fan passion.
User Demographics:
3 users were polled for this case study. Here are the demographics on each of them.
User 1: This user never used Fandom before. she's female and 10 years old. Her interests are mixed martial arts and horseback riding.
User 2: This user never used Fandom before but after using it showed interest in possibly using it. she is female and 39 years old. Her interests are softball and PTA.
User 3: This user has used Fandom before. He is male and 45 years old. His interests are music, outdoor activities and cooking.
The reason why these users were picked is because the UX Designer wanted a broad scope to work with. He figured the different perspectives would make things interesting and help bring in various opinions and observations so the site could benefit more from this case study.
Problem 1:
The first problem was loading time. When User 1 went to look up her favorite horse-riding show "Heartland" it took 33,89 seconds for it to load and then actually find it.
Screen displaying Heartland Wiki
If you look at the circled area in the picture above, there is content that shows up during the loading for "Heartland" Wiki. How is "Stranger Things" similar to "Heartland" in anyway.
After that User 2 went to Fandom and went to look up their favorite show "Hart of Dixie". It took 18.59 seconds to load the page
Screen displaying Hart of dixie Wiki
Once again there is unrelated items on this screen. What does best movies of 2018 have to do with "Hart of Dixie". When I asked the user, the reply was:
"There are no similarities. Hart of Dixie even ended in 2015."
The third user didn't have any problems with loading but they also picked a popular subject in "Dungeons and Dragons" Wiki. It gave him pretty good content similar to D&D and it all loaded in about 2 seconds.
Solution 1:
After the data was collected, the Users were interviewed once more. The question was:
"What do you think happened to load the site so slowly."
The resounding answers were:
"There were to many unrelated items on the screen."
"At least give me more options on horse related shows."
From there the problem became apparent. I's running off of keywords. That's the theory at least. That's why there were so many options on these screens. So, if they find a new system for searching hat might cut back on the options which would help on loading time. On top of that it would give better recommendations.
Problem 2:
The next problem was the fact that TV show threads were being displayed on every screen. What I mean is that if you go to the movie or game category there would be TV shows displayed there also. This was happening on all the opening screens.
Screen displaying V show threads
The graphic above shows a TV show thread. Normally that's cool but not when it's on the Movie screen. As one of the Users pointed out:
"This is really annoying especially since it took so long to load the screen."
It just seemed like everything was being geared towards TV streams.
Solution 2:
The way I would fix this is fairly simple actually. Keep things categorized better. There should be a team that has the express purpose of keeping things categorized. Not only would that help in that aspect, but it would help in loading time also.
Problem 3:
The last problem is there were multiple threads about the same show. User 2 and 3 pointed this out as a serious problem. User 1 mentioned it but didn't mention anything else about it. User 2 and 3 pointed this out though because the pages ran on for a very long time. It also made the loading time issue even worse.
Wanda Vision: 14%
Wonder Woman: 6%
Mandalorian: 6%
Cobra Kai: 4%
Cyberpunk: 4%
Soul: 4%
Super Mario: 4%
Star Wars: 4%
Avengers: 3%
Pokemon: 3%
Among Us: 3%
Single Threads: 42%
If you look at the percentages above, you'll notice that Wanda Vision is more than double than 2nd place. That was on the Homepage alone. After that there were repeated threads of Wanda Vision in every category. These threads are individual topics that users can talk about.
Solution 3:
After the percentages were compiled, it was shown to the 3 users. Here were their reactions:
"Why did they repeat them? That doesn't make sense."
"That seems like a lot of wasted time and money on something that could've been consolidated."
"It's frustrating to see considering how long it took to go anywhere on this site."
They all said in one way or another that consolidation would be best. If Fandom would take the time to just clear some stuff out or group things together it would make for a smoother website.
Conclusion:
Based on the feedback that I received my entire redesign would be to consolidate all the threads on the major pages. That would take care
of a lot of the issues with loading time and having people roaming around feeling overwhelmed with to many options.
As far as the more specific pages that load after the main Wiki pages, I would suggest more relevant recommendations to what the user is looking for. That would increase traffic around the site also. That would be more of a coder issue though because it's dealing with keywords more, in my eyes. I think Law of Connectedness would apply specifically here:
Elements that are visually connected are perceived as more related than elements with no connection.
