Forbes Autos | Principal Designer, 2007
PROBLEM:
Design and launch Forbes Autos, a luxury car media website from Forbes.com. Collaborate with editorial, business and engineering teams to create innovative car research and online shopping tools.
SOLUTIONS:
- Built wireframes and sitemaps, designed all templates
- Designed car shopping features: Drag and drop comparison tool, interactive search filters, and guided search
- Wrote HTML & CSS for templates
EdITORIAL STARTUP
The Forbes Autos media site was launched with a standard editorial structure, detailed car information was framed in using an outside vendor.
- Designed Branding, UX/ UI, and Editorial Templates
- Managed a team of designers and interns to support the editorial staff
- Built a photo database of all car makes and models
- Oversaw custom designs, sponsorships, and co-branding
- Hand-coded CSS and HTML for the backend developers
SIte Architecture
Once the site was launched, we immediately began incorporating the car data API into the site. I expanded the site architecture and designed new templates for better user experiences, advertiser outcomes, and sponsorship opportunities.
- Designed templates to display car details
- Created RFPs and negotiated photo vendor contracts
- Collaborated with engineers to parse car data API into our new templates
- Partnered with business and sales teams to increase ad opportunities
Proposed website restructuring based on audience metrics and advertising constraints.
Interactive Car SHopping
Access to the car data API meant we could create innovative and creative car shopping tools. I conceptualized and prototyped (in HTML)
Criteria Search
A filtered search where users could dial up or down specific criteria, such as fuel economy, price, speed, or safety ratings.
Comparison Tool
A drag and drop comparison that showed detailed data side by side, a photo comparison, and an innovative grid comparison where the X and Y were data points. Think Approval Matrix from New York Mag.
Guided Search
A predictive text search triggered by terms to guide users to brand overview pages and specific models.
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