Content Publishing Platform

In 2014, I led the UX and UI design of the new virgin.com content publishing platform

I was keen to ensure the experience of Virgin's new content publishing platform, Virgin.com, matched the expectations of Richard Branson and his followers. My responsibilities spanned persona work, IA and journeying, wireframes and UI design. I designed the new Virgin.com around the needs of three key audiences: those interested in travel, music, and entrepreneurialism.

Personas and key top-level ‘red-routes’

I sketched a number of high-level “rough” IAs and journeys. A number of these early prototypes were turned into reverse-tree tests that were then used to validate assumptions. The feedback from these tests in-turn informed the broader sitemap, as well as logical user red-routing that connected audiences with content.

The first Virgin.com sitemap was turned into an unmoderated tree-test

Virgin "workflow" personas & high-level user journeys

Initial journeys and information architecture

For the first round of journeys & preliminary information architecture, I took to the whitewalls, Sharpies and Post-Its in-hand

The Virgin.com shared space; most of the alignment between team and stakeholders happened in here

Higher-fidelity IA & user routing

A version of the new Virgin.com menu that had validated positively through panel-based user testing

Responsive design approach: how content expanded/collapsed depending on the view-size of the user agent or device

The final Virgin.com sitemap. The sitemap also shows user "red routes" (the user's primary journey/s through to important content)

Validated concepts moved from discovery to delivery

Designing lean allowed me to put concepts in front of Virgin's user focus panel for quick testing and high-level actionable feedback. Working in this way meant the team quickly determined which ideas worked - and which ones didn't. The concepts that resonated with end-audiences were polished and recorded in to a high-fidelity format, usually for stakeholder presentational purposes with stakeholders over at Virgin.

Once stakeholder buy-in had been achieved, and after the initial IA had been validated, I began fleshing out the higher-fidelity layout and overall design of the new Virgin.com for the delivery stage of the project.