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Wa Kushma
Date Jan 2019 - Mar 2019
Roles Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Design
Tools Figma
Team Amparo Davalos, Angelica Ramos, Roni Merrill, Youngmin Kim
As a part of Practicum in Pro Web Design with Professor Kirsh, my team and I were tasked with searching for a client in our community to work for. One of our team members is a instructor at Wa Kushma, a Mexican folk dance studio in Chula Vista. Wa Kushma's only online presence is their Facebook page, and they were looking for a more professional website to represent them.
Our challenge was to find a way to design a clean website that would meet the needs of all of our stakeholders, and retain our client's family friendly brand.
Research
We identified our stakeholders to be current members, prospective members, and 3rd parties looking to hire Wa Kushma for their events. I conducted a phone interview with a current member, where I learned that members currently gain new members through word of mouth. Wa Kushma would also get inquiries from Mexico, which showed that they needed an organized hub for all logistical information.
Displaying logistical information would be the focus of this website, but we were also asked to keep their family-friendly brand intact. We conducted a competitive analysis of similar websites to see how they conveyed their brand.
These two websites captured a lot of the requirements we were given. (The top one) combines vibrant colors of traditional Mexican costumes with a dark background (a big requirement made by our client), but the professionalism it conveys feels cold, not very family-friendly.
(The bottom one) makes great use of bright colors but lacks the dark background we were asked to incorporate. To add to our laundry list of things to balance, we were also asked by our client to add hardwood to the design, as it had folk dance roots.
To find a solution that would meet all the requirements, we had to get a little creative.
The Miami Heat had a colorway called Miami Vice that fit everything we were asked to do. It was a perfectly unorthodox solution for us.
Final Design
The home screen. Over the course of this project, we learned to use colors to help indicate what was clickable and what wasn't. Pink is the motif used to show links. This one leads to the Contact Us page, where users can find more information on location.
The location of the studio is one of the first things you see and it is highlighted for visibility. This would help clear misunderstandings about where Wa Kushma is located.
The groups page shows all of the groups Wa Kushma has, and each of their rehearsal times.
Each class has a short description to inform prospective members where they may fit in.
This page also informs 3rd parties which group they may want to hire, and the level experience they each bring.
The Contact Us page has all of the important logistic information users need to contact and or visit.
The map is front and center to again clear up where the studio is,
as Wa Kushma often gets inquiries from Mexico.
All of this information can also be found in the footer, in case users miss this specific page.
The class focused on mobile first, but it was important to have a web version as well, since people tend to use their computers to do serious research. The web version can be found here:
https://www.figma.com/proto/Si1PXehEMp6BrhsJI3aZ4oqJ/Wa-Kushma-Desktop-2.0?node-id=145%3A409&scaling=min-zoom
Reflections
This was the first time we had ever worked for a client before, and therefore the first time we had to make compromises to the design. It really drove home the kind of impact the brand has to the appearance of an application. I had definitely envisioned something more like (the first example).
The target audience group is mostly Latin Americans, a group I had never catered towards previously in my projects. Expanding my experience with different kinds of clients really forced me to get creative in searching for a solution, which was a lot of fun. I never expected my two interests to intersect like this.
Besides the color scheme, I believe that learning how to use colors as motifs will really help me take my visual designs to the next level.
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