Epic Similes UI/UX

I’m starting to design the UI/UX for Dr. Deborah Beck’s online database of epic similes in Greek literature. We met last week with her to see what she wanted from the site.

 

She told us the purpose of the site is when somebody is reading and they see a simile that interests them or is relevant to their research, they could go on the site and search the simile to learn more about it from her classification system. For example, you read “Achilles is like a bird” in the Iliad. You could then go to the site and can search for details about that simile.

 

She also wants users to have a lot of discoverability of the other data; so from a user’s first search they could easily stumble into other similes also in the Iliad, or about Achilles, or birds, etc. The site is mostly for academic use, so users will be scholars and undergrads. She wants the site to feel fun and interactive while you read.

 

Here is its current design. There is lots of extraneous data and unhelpful search options.

 

 

 

Below are some sketches and a rough Adobe XD layout for now. I am waiting for Dr. Beck to sort through what data she needs on the website and send it over, so until then the content on these drafts is TBD. I’m most excited for paring down the search options and improving the UX for each search category.

 

 

 

 

 

Project: Epic Similes Database
Client/Prof: Dr. Deborah Beck
Completion status: beginning
Staff guidance: Suloni Robertson, Valerie Tran, Chris Pittman
STA team members: Me and Jake Engelberg
Description/plans: Create an online database to host Dr. Beck’s research over epic similies in Greek literature.
To be completed: End of summer