THE KENAN CAMPUS - A DESIGN RESEARCH PROJECT
When a 73-year-old takes 6 minutes to find a link that was 2 clicks away... it's time to redo your website.
Ahead of the $10 million capital project to update the grounds and facilities of The Kenan Center, I proposed the outline of a new site - one that honors The Kenan Center as a historic and unwavering icon of Lockport, New York.
Research
Site analytics, ethnographic studies, and user interviews.​ Here are the 4 biggest takeaways:
I also interviewed 22 people from age 14-73 and asked them to critique the current site.​ The general consensus?​ it's overwhelming... but let them tell you.
I then studied search patterns, outlined a user flow chart, and sketched wireframes. While I never moved forward with a Figma prototype, users were responsive to the new ideas. As the next stage of research (if I had more time), I would have set up focus groups with various cut up elements of the proposed site and studied the way they organized different elements to their benefit.​
One more thought - rebranding to "The Kenan Campus"
What is the Kenan? Is it the old ice rink? The soccer arena? The jazz concerts, the art galleries or the gardens people get married in? It is all of these things, but with so many contrasting ideas, the Kenan Center becomes ambiguous. There is no center to the Kenan Center (pun intended).
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The Kenan has an identity crisis, but renaming it the Kenan Campus implies an interconnected network of buildings and grounds tied by a common ideology. Renaming it as a campus will allow for easier physiological and psychological movement through the space.
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