Overview
I joined Chef Koochooloo in Summer 2020 as a UI/UX Intern. Chef Koochooloo is a gamified app that helps teach STEAM (science, technology, engineering and arts), through healthy cooking and dynamic technology. Chef Koochooloo’s vision is to improve the health, happiness, and learning of children worldwide. At the time, there were 5 full-time regular employees and more than 20 interns.
I immediately jumped in to help out in various projects. The company was going through a rebranding phase and adopted several new modern colors as well as diverse avatars. As things were changing, our Content Creator intern noticed that our website was extremely outdated. Many of our services (which were in-person) were still being advertised on our website when they were no longer offered. Our colors and visuals on the website were low quality and not matching our new branding guidelines. As one of the only interns with WordPress experience, our CEO and Founder, Layla Sabourian, asked me to take the lead on this project. I was able to recruit four other interns to work with me on this website project.
My Role and Responsibilities
As the lead intern for the Website Team, my responsibilities include:
1. Scheduling Google Meet meetings with the website team.
2. Communicate frequently and consistently through WhatsApp.
3. Design mockups using Adobe XD.
4. Design the “What’s New” page and landing page for the website.
5. Create a webform for the email newsletter.
July 2020
Identifying the Problem
We began to meet frequently and identify pressing issues on the website. The website did not include clear statements on COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. These issues are highly important to the company as our curriculum focuses on diversity and social responsibility. Our website’s original design was dull and not exciting. The font size was too small and did not showcase the exciting projects Chef Koochooloo was working on.
We were also fortunate to receive professional advice from a Tech Advisor, Reena Jadhav. She encouraged us to be more assertive in our marketing strategy and focus on advertising our current product. Based on this advice, we decided to design a large landing page that would advertise our app.
We compiled a list of website design and content issues:
1. The type size on the website is too small and hard to read.
2. Some graphics were low-quality and contained outdated information.
3. Photos were not high resolution and did not represent Chef Koochooloo in the present.
4. Website lacked exciting colors, too many dull blues and grays.
Determining Priorities
Due to time constraints for this project, the website team and I organized a list of priorities for this project:
1. Archive webpages that are no longer relevant for the company.
2. Include a “What’s New” page that includes statements on the pandemic and Black Lives Matter and what Chef Koochooloo is doing to help the situation.
3. Design a landing page that is engaging and market’s our current product.
4. Use new company graphics and colors in our design.
Sitemap Visualization
Organizing content and determining what information belongs to the home page was very important to us. Since we were also restructuring our main navigation, we built a sitemap to determine what webpages are the most important for this time.
Creating our Style Guide
We decided to use a bright pink as our main accent for our website design. The original website had no accent color, which made it look uninteresting. The bright pink color was not only eye-catching and exciting, but was fun and inviting.
The website team recognized the importance of visuals that showed diversity and inclusivity. We focused on using characters that were ethnically diverse and using photos of students cooking foods from around the world.
August 2020
Designing Mockups
After we had organized a sitemap of our website, we began to design mockups on Adobe XD to determine overall layout, colors, and typography. This was also to ensure that our design on all pages was cohesive. During this time, I made sure to communicate frequently with other designers and our project manager to seek feedback on our design.
September 2020
Redesigning our Website
After approval from both Layla and Ksenia, we began redesigning our website using a WordPress plugin called Elementor. This process went smoothly thanks to our mockups and wireframes. By September, we were able to publish a fully-functioning website that was a thousand times better than our previous site.
Key Takeaways
There were some difficulties and challenges to this project. Because Chef Koochooloo is a start-up company, there were a lot of projects for interns to work on. The website team members were often participating in other projects and tasks, so working efficiently was extremely important. Despite this, I am so thankful for my teammates for being so flexible for meetings.
Given the time constraints and little to no experience with WordPress. We were all able to learn quickly and publish a website that we were proud of. I believe that the new website is refreshing and accurately represents Chef Koochooloo.
