When I was approached by Marlai to create a new website for them, I jumped at the chance as this would be my first project for a more established and high-end client. I was given very little direction from the owners other than some color ideas.

Because of the lack of up-front requirements I began the process by identifying users and their possible reasons for using the site. I conducted several informal interviews to gain insight on potential users and their. From these sessions I learned that users are interested in finding:

• Food and drink selections
• Prices
• Location and directions
• Hours
• Contact information

While these points might seem rather obvious, customers where able to give me first hand information about their experiences at other websites where these items were successful or otherwise. One of the most valuable issues brought to my attention was the common usage of PDF only menus. PDF's raise two issues: many people are not comfortable downloading files, and PDF's do not allow for a quick, in browser, view.

After establishing some goals and preliminary requirements I entered the design phase. This consisted mostly of sketching possible layouts for each section of the site. During this phase of the project I was careful to arrange meetings with my client in order to share progress and ideas in and to ensure that I was on target with their expectations. Below is a link to a wireframe I created for meeting that took place during one of the final iterations of wireframe process.

I concluded the project by running several informal usability tests. The tests consisted a set of tasks for the user to accomplish. These tasks involved finding the price of specific items, finding customized driving directions, and discovering hours of operation.

The site was launched on January 12th, 2010 at www.MarlaiThai.com.