Duration: 3 Weeks | Project Status: Ended | Website redesign

What is Black facts?
BlackFacts is the first and only online encyclopedia of Black facts and history. BlackFacts was created in 1997 by Ken Granderson and Dale Dowdie, who continue to develop the site and bring Black history to schools and school districts, or just anyone looking to gain more knowledge on Black facts. Blackfacts offers original videos, sourced articles, widgets for educators websites, and a plethora of Black facts.

Redesign BlackFacts’ desktop platform in order to increase traffic on their videos and increase company revenue by improving their Black Facts Swag commerce page.

Problem/opportunity

Although BlackFacts’ platform has a plethora of great information, the platform's organization and structure makes the site difficult for users to navigate.

Target users

Schools, school districts, and teachers or those interested in learning about Black history, anyone with a curious mind.

Our wonderful UXUI team of four

Our main goals.
Increasing Revenue
Connecting with more users
Information arch- users need to enjoy their experience so they come back
Website functionality

The current core features of BackFacts are their videos, their news syndicate entitled "Wakanda News" and the fact that they are a massive historical data base.

Discover

We created a survey to better understand how learners and educators access their educational content, we had 24 users answer our survey, from that information we crafted two different Interview prompts that we then conducted on eight educators and eight learners. These were some of our key insights.

1. I want to ensure that the content is clear, easy to digest, and grade appropriate before adding it to my curriculum.
2. I like to use multiple forms of media when instructing my students.
3. When looking for information on a topic, sometimes there is so much information that I don’t know where to start.
4. I prefer to learn through a variety of media.

Surveys

Educator interviews

Learner Interviews

Problem Statement

Educator - Alex needs a way to efficiently find easily digestible and engaging content, that is credible and grade appropraite, so that he can feel confident in the material he is teaching to his students.

Learner - Selena needs a way to easily locate a variety of trusted, multi media, information on the topic she is interested in so that she can learn most effectively.

Design

Our clients had given us a handful of mockup logo designs to choose from. We chose this one, not only because of how it looked, but because it best represented the Black Facts brand.

Red is a very stimulating color and is often associated a learning space can increase alertness, creativity, and excitement

Orange is uplifting; stimulates critical thinking and memorization. Orange lifts the mood, acting as a welcoming color for learners that helps improve neural function. Some theorists have argued that an environment rich in orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, stimulating mental activity.

Blue is best used for learning situations which are challenging. Helps improve reading comprehension. Encourages mind flow and performance. Enhances creativity and alertness; promotes tranquility; improves overall health, memory, and mood; lessens fatigue and depression.

Black promotes sophistication, security, and efficiency.

Usability tests and Iterations

Task 1

5/5 Users were able to complete the task
4/5 Users exited out of the email newsletter pop-up immediately
Users had a slightly difficulty identifying the videos they were clicking on

Task 2

5/5 Users were able to complete the task
The add to cart CTO was confusing for users without a cart summary
Text on specific parts of the checkout flow was illegible to people who are visually impaired.