Michael Gammon - My portfolio

The Pent Awards

1. The Discovery Process

The Pentawards attracts over 30,000 entries from 95 countries over 16 years. Judged by a prestigious international panel representing diverse expertise, it's the premier platform for showcasing and celebrating the artistry of packaging design worldwide.

Our brief was to create a seamless and engaging digital experience that catered to the diverse needs of The Pent Awards' global audience while aligning with the organization's branding and objectives.

Key users of the site would include:

Packaging designers who have been entered for the awards.
An international panel of judges who will vote and judge online.
Sponsors who will manage their own profile information.
Packaging design companies who will be entering the awards and buying tables.
Anyone interested in packaging design including journalists will also be visiting the site.

A unique user journey will be required for each user – for example: sponsors will need to update their profiles via the cms which would then be displayed on the sponsors pages; judges will need to be comfortable with creating their own accounts and profiles whilst also understanding the online judging process; award nominees would be required to provide supporting information for their nominations.

The Pent Award has a strong brand and a dedicated online following with leading global packaging designers and companies. The site should adhere to brand guidelines whilst showcasing the award winning designs.

From past experience and analytics the client has informed us that most of their users are comfortable with modern technology and browsers and over 80% of users interact with the awards via a pc interface rather than mobile.

2. Key Insights

User personas were supplied by the client and used to influence the design and functionality. We built up user journey diagrams for each personna to help reduce pain points and reduce time spent entering the awards and judging the winners.

Research via a customer feedback call has discovered that The Pent Awards users have found the award category process confusing and awkward to use.

This was addressed at the initial design stage using a hand drawn sketch then incorporated into the prototype stage with a redesign of the category panels using bespoke javascript tabs.

The client, focus groups and users much preferred using the new design as selecting the award category group via a tab then list of categories greatly simplified the process. Users also preferred the use of icons to differentiate category groups as opposed to plain text.

Extensive usability testing was conducted with sample users on key site functions before making the site live.

3. Design

Wireframes were used clarify the site structure and content saving time in the design and development process.

The evessio events cms was used to create a high-fidelity prototype, when approved the site was built and styled using a theme with bespoke css and javascript.

Featured below are the homepage design, The Packaging Design Book order page, judging profiles and sample news page.

4. Usability Testing and Feedback

User testing was done via in-person moderated and unmoderated sessions. Key task metrics were benchmarked, and then the new design was retested to measure improvements. Frequent client feedback is improving the site UX and design, adaptations have been made to the image slider for ease of use and the news page has been simplified as requested by the client.

Further development work on the entry process is in progress.

5. Key metrics & KPIs

Creating a self-serve, automated judging process for the award category entries saved all our clients a significant amount of time. We were complimented on converting a painful user experience to an efficient and streamlined digital experience that could be duplicated and repeated on subsequent awards.