Design
The purpose of ShutterConnect is two-fold:
- enables users to find and review photographers based on several criteria.
- allows photographers to create a profile page with their business information, thereby advertising themselves to potential customers.
The website consists of three main pages:
- a homepage, from where users can search for photographers based on criteria such as location, price range or event type. The homepage also allows new users to signup, or log in if they already have accounts.
- a search results page, which displays results of a user's search query.
- a photographer’s profile page, which gives an overview of the photographer’s work. Photographers can also edit their pages.
All the pages have a top horizontal bar that allows redirection back to the homepage.
A detailed discussion of the top bar and the 3 pages follows.
Top Bar
The top bar provides consistency of look and feel across all of ShutterConnect's pages, while also increasing efficiency of navigating back to the homepage. The top bar also allows users to log in or log out in one click.
When designing, we considered using a tab bar with different tasks, such as "find a photographer" and "leave a review". However, we decided to show only the tasks that were applicable to the particular page that a user was viewing. For example, having a "leave a review" tab at the top of the search results page might be confusing to a user. We therefore decided to appeal to the simplicity heuristic.
Homepage
We considered designing and implementing a site with a prominent login page, which required all users to signup before having any access to the website. However, we opted to allow users to have access to as much functionality as possible without being forced to register.
We considered using designs similar to travel websites, but decided that these pages look busy. We therefore opted on a minimal design, which is consistent with sites such as Google's search page that most users are familiar with. We also did not want to present too many options to users right at the outset. Instead, we opted to make it easy to start and show options when necessary.
SearchPage
We considered having a confirmation page in which a user could alter their search parameters before seeing the actual results of the page. However, we decided that it would more efficient if, upon entering a search query, a user saw their results immediately, and then had the option of changing their parameters based on the results received.