Exploring the possibilities of paper in a new editorial platform for world renowned paper experts and curators, GF Smith.
COLLABORATORS
UX RESEARCH: ALEX CAPES + DAVID LOWBRIDGE
DISCIPLINES
UX DESIGN
UX RESEARCH
LIVE SITE
N/A
TIMELINE
JULY 2024 –
AUGUST
2024
DUPLEXING, EMBOSSING, CREASING... OH MY!
GF Smith came to us with the hope of revamping their existing site, overhauling their ecommerce platform, and building a brand new editorial platform to house their reams of content on and around the subject of paper. Our main challenge was to integrate these three disparate experiences into one cohesive and seamless ecosystem.
With little analytical data on the more editorial content to aid our efforts, we began the discovery phase by diving head-first into the world of GF Smith. Digesting, cataloguing and sorting the various articles and content-rich pages both live and archival, the basis from which a taxanomic scaffolding was formed.
BUILDING A FUTURE-PROOFED PLATFORM
The GF Smith creative community ranges from students to trade professionals, the goal of the editorial platform being to service each and every one of them. One of the existing sites main issues is content bloating and sprawl, a symptom of a lack of structure. A hostile environment to navigate, the content meant to service the creative community gets lost and familiar UX patterns return unfamiliar results.
From the goals defined by the client, and by our own discovery, the new editorial platform would be best divided into three sections: Learn, Create, Inspire, with a final non-editorial section, Services, dedicated to the more technical information.
The three editorial categories are bisected further into their main content types. Articles are then further categorised by series, alleviating the possibility of bloating. This setup allows the GF Smith team to create content within a defined structure that grows with them without sprawling.
Understanding the key needs of GF Smith’s primary audiences allowed us to build a robust and comprehensive information architecture, further affirmed by key user journeys.
THE FINAL OUTCOME
While I wish I could show you that, you’ll just have to wait and see!