I developed a new website for Zak Mirzadeh to promote his tours and simplify the event booking process. The site experience is tailored to Zak’s unique story and personality and has increased traffic and awareness for Zak’s brand.

Process

The discovery process started with collecting information on Zak’s target audience, Zak’s business needs for the new site, and reviewing the site analytics for his existing site. His primary business goals for the site were to increase traffic and bookings while providing easy access for fans to find his show schedule. In addition to this, Zak needed to showcase some of his products, integrate video content, and provide access to sign up for his newsletter.

This information was used to develop user personas and a vision statement to guide the design process. Using these personas Zak and I determined user journeys along with a set of unique selling points that we leveraged to anticipate potential pain points as visitors progressed through their stories. I then created a rough guide for our content needs and a basic site structure.

The second phase of the project was to define and create the content for the site. I used content slice diagrams to identify copy needs on a page by page basis. These diagrams allowed complete transparency and created a highly collaborative environment as we developed copy that ensured each page had all of the content needed to satisfy business requirements and user needs before we proceeded to the site visual design.

I wanted the site to have a whimsical look to enhance Zak’s work. Initially I had been provided with a group of image assets to leverage for the site, however, partway through the design process Zak and I became convinced that they didn’t fit with who Zak is or connect with his target audience. Zak quickly scheduled a completely new photoshoot that resulted in the whimsical photos that we have on his final site. This shoot was a turning point in the project and significantly enhanced the resulting site.

Results

Since launch, the site I developed with Zak has seen an increase in Zak’s month-by-month traffic and has simplified the booking process.