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Quick Facts
My Role
Freelance UX Architect
Duration
4 weeks
(Jul - Aug 2021)
Team Members
Creative Director
Sr. Project Manager
Developers
Data Engineer
Toolbox
Adobe XD
Platforms
Desktop
Mobile
Tablet
Deliverables
Research
Content Strategy
Information Architecture
Storytelling
Wireframes
Mockups
Client
HLK Agency
Background
Data shows more than 175 million adults in the U.S. don’t participate in shooting sports or hunting. At the same time, there's been an increase in people (specifically a more diverse set of people) interested in getting into the category than ever before.
To capitalize on this opportunity, Winchester Ammunition planned to launch the Shoot United initiative that would give potential shooters the foundational information and educational content they need to confidently explore and participate in the category. By supporting these people early on in their journey, Winchester hoped to form relationships that would drive value for their business and the category long-term.
The ask
I was hired by HLK Agency to work with their product team and create a website for Winchester. They needed a solid, user-centric foundation to hand off to the rest of the Creative team to develop. Winchester provided a brief highlighting must-haves and desired components of the site. They proposed a phased approach and needed a site that was scalable and would allow other resources to be added in the future. From there, my task was pretty straightforward - create a logical, user-friendly way to organize and display the content they requested:
Phase 1 (Now)
Homepage (Intro, sizzle reel, mission statement)
About Page
Learn Page (Masterclass-like, videos, education-based)
Watch (Short films, entertainment-based)
Read (Page for blog content)
Where To Shoot
Where To Hunt
Where to Buy Ammo
Phase 2 (Future)
Listen Page (Podcasts and other audio)
Personal Defense Subpage (Learning videos)
Hunting Subpage (Learning videos)
Establishing the foundation
I began by researching educational sites and other products that launched initiatives and brainstorming the best way to structure the site. By using their list of content and keeping in mind the future content that will be added, I designed a sitemap that captured the full site for both phases. I passed it along and awaited feedback from Winchester.
A couple of days later, I met with the team and they stated that Winchester loved how clean the categories were and the fact that I incorporated existing features from their existing home site (like Search and Sign up).
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Laying the framework
After the sign-off on the sitemap, I created the wireframes - a total of 7 screens incorporating all the requirements (with bonus features) in a way that was user-friendly, told a story, and kept users engaged.
Homepage
About
Read
Learn
Watch
Get Started
FAQs
Setting the mood
I provided the creative team with a moodboard. I used a very similar color palette from the Winchester site and incorporated a general theme - rugged, bold, and 'outdoorsy'.
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Launch
I'm happy to announce that Winchester successfully launched Shoot United in January 2022 and I was even happier to see that about 95% of my designs from my wireframes made it onto their live site!
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Overall, it was a win for me because they valued my recommendations and definitely a win for them because they have a nicely laid out site with sensible information architecture and logical flow.
