I loved working on DIY Network. On the heels of the HGTV Redesign, DIY Network too was slated for a complete overhaul. As the lead designer on the project, I started working with the network’s marketing department months ahead of schedule so the design team could better understand who the target audience was. They had just completed an extensive research project and we took advantage.
Following the marketing research, we spent several months dissecting traffic and analytics in order to understand existing user behavior and producing hierarchical diagrams of topics and driving discussion about taxonomy.
Because DIY was to be built on the same platform as HGTV, we only identified one content type – the How-to – that would be new for DIY. The How-to is a sequential instructional format that supports video, a variety of photo components, and has it’s own components for tools, materials, cost, etc. After several months of planning, design, prototyping and testing, the How-to was launched alongside a new an improved DIY Network.