Siddiq’s Real Fruit Water Ice is a beloved spot for treats in West Philly, founded with a passion for community and a commitment to quality. The current website is quite minimal, with basic details about catering events, a brief backstory, and a career page.
How can we preserve the website’s unpretentious, local business feel while strengthening its brand identity and making it more distinctive?
A fully responsive website that enhances Siddiq’s digital presence and converts visitors into customers. Through engaging visuals and compelling storytelling, it will highlight happy customers and strong community connections
I wanted to understand people's expectations of a small business website. I conducted interviews with five participants who also shared their impressions and experiences of the current Siddiq’s website. Their insights into their pain points, expectations, and preferences are invaluable for identifying key areas of improvement and refining the user experience.
The website isn’t inviting - it wouldn’t put me off, but it’s not drawing me in
Aesthetics is the easiest way to make a judgement that they care about their product
I feel like I somehow have more questions than answers after looking at this
Affinity mapping showed that the visual impact is one of the factors that is used to decide on where to go. Without visuals, people often want a recommendation from someone they know.
Social media came up frequently - not only as a way people discover places, but also as proof that a business is vibrant and active.
For a more comprehensive view of the project, I wanted to be aware of the business, user, and technical goals.
The research came down to a few actionable items that I wanted to make sure to cover:
Before designing I wanted to make sure that users could accomplish everything they would need from a small business website.
I used a rudimentary figma wireframe prototype to assess whether the layout and task flow felt intuitive and frictionless. Six people participated in moderated think-aloud sessions, primarily testing the desktop prototype.
Key insights from lo-fi testing
I wanted to make Siddiq’s logo more legible without losing the vibe. I made the lettering thicker, connected the letters, and removed the outline and shadow.
Many interview participants noted that the text proportions felt off and didn’t fit well on any viewport, especially on desktop. By fine-tuning the scale and enhancing the visual hierarchy, I made the page easier to scan and absorb. I created icons to make the descriptions of catering methods easier to scan and understand. More common icons were added for instant recognition for the contact info.
Proposed Typescale
UI Icons
Illustrative Icons
Building on the new brand identity and wireframe tests, I developed interactive high-fidelity prototypes to to incorporate realistic interactions, creating another layer to enhance the user experience. The main change was highlighting the water ice they are famous for on the hero image, and describing what water ice is.
Building on the new brand identity and wireframe tests, I developed interactive high-fidelity prototypes to to incorporate realistic interactions, creating another layer to enhance the user experience. To ensure the branding was on the right track, I also conducted user testing to gather first impressions - evaluating whether the design felt inviting and aligned with both the brand and product.
Key insights from hi-fi testing
Since one of the main goals was to emphasize Siddiq’s relationship to the community, the “Our Story” section was moved higher on the page. Usability test participants found that separating “Welcome to Siddiq’s” and “Our Story” made it disjointed. Moving the social media from “Our Story” to the landing page made it feel more current and personable.
Testing also showed that the menu was easily missed, so the tabs were emphasized and the toppings below the items it can go on.
Below is an example of the prototype that was tested. Click around to explore!
