Overview
Thomas Schmittinger is an exceptionally talented professional guitarist and musician in Koblenz, Germany. He needed a website to promote and support his guitar tuition business.
I worked with Thomas to design and develop a brand, website and local SEO strategy. With no previous website the project was a blank canvas and the whole design and development process as well as the final website was in the German language.
Problem Statement
Thomas Schmittinger needed a modern, accessible, and user-friendly website that:
- Clearly communicated his service and expertise
- Provided users with video content to experience tuition and teaching styles
- Was mobile-friendly and SEO-optimised for local performance
- Increased engagement, awareness and lead generation
My Process
1. Research & Discovery
User & Business Needs Analysis:
- Conducted stakeholder interviews to understand organisational goals
- Identified key target audience types
- Analysed competitor websites for best practices
2. Design & Wireframing
- Created a collaborative design asset in Figma
- Implemented a brand style, typography and image treatment that aligned with Thomas's identity
- Designed a high-fidelity website layout in Figma
3. Development & Launch
- Built the site on Drupal CMS for flexibility and future scalability
- Integrated SEO best practices and patterns for local focussed search results
- Tested responsiveness across multiple device types and browsers
Key Improvements
✅ Good User Experience: Simplified navigation and clear messaging
✅ Mobile Optimisation: Fully responsive across all devices
✅ Lead Generation: Contact form conversion rate continual growth through local Google search results
Reflection & Takeaways
This project emphasised the value of stakeholder collaboration during the design and development process. Using the collaborative design tooling in Figma, I was able to work with Thomas to understand his needs and goals whilst getting real time feedback on designs.