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.
We also decided on a minimal design, which is consistent with sites such as Google's search page that most users are familiar with.
Homepage
- WE CONSIDERED: “travel-website like design”
+ “advanced search” sidebar already present in front page
+ simplicity: page looks a little busier when compared to the “minimal” design. Don’t want to present too many options to tweak parameters right at the outset, instead make it easy to start and show options when necessary. MAKE CHOICES ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE TO
FILTER BAR MOVED TO LEFT FROM TOP
- wanted it to scroll down with the users.
- information in page vs information in head
- if we put bar in a frame, but then we lose vertical real estate and have to show fewer results. vertical real estate is premium because we want to show sample work as well.
WE CONSIDERED: confirmation of search parameters
+ make it easier to tweak parameters later than requiring additional confirmation steps