A Slice of Life
Intros and taking on UX for Kensington Market
Hello Everyone! It has been quite a bit since my last case study. At that point I had completed my UI segment, overseen by the ever amazing Leo Calogero. In all honesty, my fast tracking, skill gaining abilities is accredited to this man. The knowledge, the insight is all due to his ‘intuitiveness’ & ‘robustness’. Seriously, I called him the one shift ‘Pixel Man’ because he really can spot a discrepancy within a pixel. So hats off to Tio Leo, the Jedi Master.

Onto the Realm of UX
Since the start of October, I and four other classmates taking the full stack course made our place amongst the new recruits to begin our lessons in UX Design. Our instructors for UX is now Sara Sibylle and Osama Ghazal. Trainers in the art of UX, they bring logic and validation. More importantly they teach the essences of creating communication spaces between the user and products(Interface surfaces) through smart devices.These spaces are only created by understanding the vast amounts of research data that a Product Designer require. Which often means we need to gain an understanding of what the targeted audiences need or want. Now to say this in laymen terms; Every screen surface that you have accessed(clicked, swiped, tapped), whether you have reached your desired destination or not, it was done by Product Designers (UX/UI) . They were able to successfully create whatever you needed to get to your desired place of interest in the web. A product designer is like an architect within the digital space.
And that is what my two instructors are there for at RED Academy. To teach and guide me on the path to be a Product Designer.Currently I can claim to be a UI (Visual) Designer, but the love of research and development is strong and so here I am learning the artistry of UX.
On a very amusing note, Osama is very Vulcan like. Sometimes you can not tell if he jests or saying things as a matter of fact. A certain doctor would probably say his blood is ‘green’. Now I say this in a very honorific way because The Power That Be knows I am a cheek.

Let us begin…
This case study is from our design exercise, a little warm up for the upcoming client projects. All my prior projects/case studies were on the standpoint of UI. From now on my case studies will reflect on validating and building up apps and sites based on collected data.
To get our feet wet, Sara and Osama assigned us marketplaces located within downtown Toronto. Under the design exercise, we were to conduct surveys and gather all necessary data in order for us to build and revamp their existing website. With a team of five(including myself) we set out on ‘improving’ the website, which in all honesty, is not a very good. I must point out that this particular project is only up till the mid-fi stage. Subsequent case studies will feature client projects. Those will be ones that will contain completed Hi-Fis.
…With Kensington

First let me give you a little background information. Kensington Market is one of the oldest markets in Toronto. From its humble beginnings as plot of land owned by George Taylor Denison in 1815, he soon opened it up as a community settlement for immigrants. What started out as a primarily Jewish population, within 200 years of history its ecosystem is now that of a diverse cultural landscape. Ethnic groups from East to West have established their roots along the narrow streets of the marketplace. As a result we see an eclectic range of shops that dwell within Kensington. From delicious Mexican cuisines to vintage thrift shops, there are so many points of interest. Not mention the humble, offbeat citizens that inhabit that space. You will find a diverse array of folks. From the sedate to ‘festive’ folks. It is for everyone, anyone who wants something that sets itself apart from your typical gentrified neighbourhoods. And I am in fact referring to Markets of Distillery and Saint Lawerence . Kensington has that 70’s/80’s mixed feels that you can almost get the notion that you are in a time bubble.
I say this because if anyone dare tries to counter me, I will simply invoke a mewling incantation and send you this person.

What I wrote, seems rather exciting, an experience to behold. But if anyone who didn’t link to an earlier comment of mine, not to worry because right below you are to witness a snap of Kensington’s website. So everyone, here you go:

To be fair it is run by volunteers and I mean no disrespect to them.
But I cry.
I cry at the potential that has been lost. In the world of today, we are interlinked digitally in conveying our thoughts and experiences through a web platform. The website does nothing to convey to what Kensington Market has to offer. And so I weep.

The Gauntlet has been thrown.
So how does one go about in revamping a website that could be mistaken for something from the 2000's?
Through collecting data of course!
And how to we get data?
Through surveys and interviews!

If I were a betting man, I can assume, which actually is a cardinal sin for UX Designers, that most of you avoid anyone standing on the street with a clipboard. Because we all know that someone is usually querying about your charitable habits. Within the crowds of clipboards though, there are folks like me who genuinely want to ask you questions about how you access websites and obtain cliffs note on your lifestyle. Of course when I approach you, I do it sans clipboard. I use my charms and devilish good looks to collect whatever data I require.

So when we conducted our surveys and interviews, our group came to the evidential conclusion, that while there were ample visitors entering the market, most arrived through word of mouth. There were only negligent number of people who got there through the website. Which would not be surprising since it is pretty lackluster.
With our data processed and looked over. We knew that we would have to bring the people and their experiences onto the Kensington website itself. Not to mention help showcase the shops in more cohesive way. With and affinity diagrams and users personas, lo-fi s, we abracadabra for mid-fi s to appear. I’ll skip over chattering about lo-fi s cause, my drawings were simply a bunch scribbles resembling squares and buttons. I will though give you two user personas that we extrapolated.
One persona is be that of someone recently moving to Toronto. She is in a process of changing her diet and looking for a place that caters to a communal, holistic lifestyle. If anyone has been to Kensington recently, there are plentiful vegan options available throughout the area. The second one is from a viewpoint of a shop owner. His persona is that of man who can see a shift of how people are coming into his business and community. While his business does well during the summer, winters are more trying. As one of the more progressive shop owners, he does believe that online presence plays a vital role to drive sales.


With those personas hammered out, the time came to roll up our sleeves and wrangling in mid-fi s. It took just a wee bit, but we got the mid-fi s herded in and assembled. Below I shall reveal the mi-fi s. There is a fair chance that if you have managed to read up till now, I applaud you for doing so. Most readers probably would have clicked out of this article after my admiration for Instructor Leo. Alright folks, Here are the mid-fi s:





Some folks are going to wonder, “Where are the images, all the pretty pictures?” Well sorry to burst your bubble, but I did say earlier that this won’t be a fancy hi fi s.

May I offer you guys a kleenex? No? Alright…..Let us continue.
My group and I highlighted the key opportunities a visitor to the Kensington Market website can come across.
- Redesigned Navigational Bar
- Images within categories depicting the market and its offerings
- Kensington Stories that feature residences and shop owners
- Placing a new market filtering system through the use of tags
- Galleria of Instagram Users that tag Kensington Market
- A more descriptive module of vendors that also highlights their popular dishes
My Critical take….Finally The End
Had I been one of the two personas, I would probably come to regard the website as a place that validated the authenticity of Kensington Market. It was fun developing and perfecting survey questions. As someone who enjoys research and development, I coupled it with my imagination. For me I like to look over the data and figure out the intentions of people to land up on websites for their desired purpose. Be it for good or bad, fun or dull. For all its reason, we as User Experience Designer/Product Designers are at your service. We are here to develop all your website needs, wants and delights.
I bid you all farewell, till my next case study. Oh and remember think 80’s while you’re at Kensington. See ya!

