dk blog redesign

Dennis Kirk is a leading U.S. powersports retailer, offering motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, snowmobiles, and related gear. The Dennis Kirk blog provides riders with maintenance tips, product guides, industry news, and riding inspiration, serving both new and experienced enthusiasts.

For this project, I redesigned the blog to create a more accessible, usable, and modern digital experience. The focus was on improving navigation, enhancing content discoverability, and updating the visual design to align with the brand while ensuring a seamless experience across devices.

Technical Notes

  • Hosted separately from the main Dennis Kirk website.

  • Built on WordPress with a third-party front-end developer implementing the design.

  • Some design and functionality updates were limited by implementation constraints, but all UX and visual decisions aimed to maximize usability, accessibility, and brand alignment.

Duration: 8 weeks

Team members: Martha Vaughan, Third-Party front-end developer

Role & Responsibilities: UX Design & UI Design

Final blog Walk through

DESIGN PROCESS

2. MARKET RESEARCH

Key pain points within Dennis Kirk’s past blog site:

  • Navigation & Content Hierarchy – The layout made it harder to scan articles quickly or browse by topic efficiently.

  • Accessibility Limitations – The previous design did not fully meet accessibility best practices for readability, contrast, and mobile use.

  • Brand Consistency – The visual and structural design didn’t fully reflect the quality and authority of the Dennis Kirk brand.

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User Flow

2. CONCEPT TESTING

Positive Feedback: The marketing team reported all user-facing changes as improvements, noting the updated design is more modern, readable, and aligned with the brand.

  • Implementation Constraints: Some design details could not be fully replicated due to limitations in the WordPress setup and third-party front-end development. These included:

    • Spacing of text in the header

    • Layout of the hero section

    • Formatting of the email sign-up banner

Despite these constraints, the redesign successfully achieved its primary goals of improving usability, accessibility, and visual consistency across devices.

2. WIREFRAMES