Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins is the American author best known for the wildly popular Hunger Games trilogy. As a project for my undergraduate studies, I explored a redesign of her website to improve the overall user experience while extending her worldwide brand.

my roles

User interviews • Heuristic evaluations • Surveys • Personas • Wireframes • Prototypes • Branding • UI design • Interaction design

just the facts, ma’am

It would be easy to hypothesize about the users given that most of Suzanne’s works falls in the teen fiction category but I wanted a true representation of the typical user. Interviews and surveys were helpful to gather demographics and psychographics of the users, while heuristic evaluations exposed several usability issues. Inferential data analysis provided me the necessary guidance for persona creation and narratives for scenarios.

Cut it out

I developed a list of recommendations that included enhancements to the primary navigation and implementation of a system of grid layouts for all pages but I thought it was best to adopt a minimalist approach through addition by subtraction. The website was brimming with unnecessarily redundant content and my suggestions to reorganize/reduce content would help carve out clear paths for easier navigation.

From pen to paper

With a list of features for implementation, I was able to advance to brainstorming through sketches. Ideation started conservatively and progressively expanded when factoring fantasy content and an intention for a more immersive experience.

Put a good face on

At first glance, the website appeared to make few considerations in executing a brand strategy. As part of my design recommendations, typography was selected for improved readability and multimedia was chosen to elicit engagement. Injecting color schemes and visual elements from the books and movies helped build rapport with the typical fan.

Lift the curtain

Optimization and engagement were the foundational concepts behind the website redesign. Through a concerted effort to reduce the clutter from the original website and inject more compelling content, I was able to introduce a fresh take on the Suzanne Collins website.