Bill's Music: Research-Led Website Redesign
HCC 729 · Spring 2026 · Team of 4 · My role: survey and interview lead, heuristic evaluation
Methods: survey (n=12), interviews (n=2), heuristic evaluation, think-aloud pilot (n=2)
(currently under construction! stay tuned for full case study)
Overview
Bill's Music is a family-owned music store in Catonsville, Maryland, open since 1965. Its website is cluttered and hard to use. I led the research into why, and our team redesigned the site around what we found.
My Role
I designed and ran the survey and both interviews, and analyzed the results. My heuristic evaluation flagged homepage clutter, which the team ranked the site's most critical problem.
What We Found
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Visual appeal was the clearest problem. It scored 1.75 out of 5, and 8 of 12 respondents gave it the lowest rating, even though nearly all of them were comfortable with technology.
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The site fails both kinds of visits. A 15-year customer just wanted store hours and found them buried. A first-time visitor wanted to explore and couldn't tell what the store offered.
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New visitors need the site to earn their trust. The loyal customer trusts the store from experience. The newcomer said a messy site made her hesitant to buy anything expensive. In her words, the store's character was "passion buried under clutter."
What it Changed
Finding
Cluttered Homepage
Contact info scattered across 6 places
New visitors lack trust signals
Design Response
One clear hero section with two primary actions
One consistent footer on every page
Store history and community identity moved up the page