Having outlined a project timeline for the redesign of their company website I was brought on the project to be the lead designer, manage the project and insure that the design team was able to deliver a site which met both aesthetic as well as business goals.
Project and Timeline
In 8 weeks Fierce wanted to launch a new website which would decrease bounce rate, increase conversion and increase the number of qualified leads while representing Fierce's brand and personality. I was brought on as the lead designer to oversee the project, working with a production designer and a copyrighter.
Prior to the start of the project Storybrand, a messaging agency was brought on to help clarify the company message and the wording. This gave a framework of the story that they wanted to tell across the website.
Competitive Analysis and Mood Boards
Fierce wanted their statement to represent the heart and soul of the company and the attitudes of levity, hard work and fun and honesty that they brought to work with them every day. They were proud of the fact that when they started they were the only ones using bright colors, they loved that they had set up online training courses before any other competitor and they wanted the website to represent this edge. They needed to balance a desire to appeal to their professional clients, people who wanted the best but did not have much time to look, people for whom content was key.
Whiteboarding User Flow and Mapping IA
Meeting with leaders from Fierce's sales and customer service team allowed me to gain insight to what customers were calling in concerning. Based on the company personas I also developed 3 additional anti-persoanas. Development of these was important to allow the team to discuss not only what our ideal state was but how to make sure the anti personas issues were clarified before taking the time to call in. I ran 2 whiteboarding sessions to illustrate the buyers process as well as process through the proposed website. Based on this we made needed changes to the Information Architecture which clarified user pathways and Fierce's product offerings.
From there I, along with the team whiteboarded the content on the pages to match the userflows and persona end goals.
Whiteboards & Wireframes
The team spent 2 working sessions to whiteboard/ prototype the layouts of all pages as well as what stories and applied previously planned user paths to lay out concepts for pages. I then divided pages with the production designer and provide wireframes of all unique page types as well as providing multiple options within.
Disagreement can build a better product
One of the major disagreements faced in this process was that of the training pages. The primary CTA on the homepage was get trained. Was the goal of the training page to be a store or a proof point which gave customers more information as to what the company’s value to them was. Based on previous work and research of user flows and development of personas. I charted out users expectations from buttons and where we could expect to see drop-off based on user goals. My recommendation had ben to provide a hybrid approach which might provide both information and a shopping experience by use of different entry points to the page. After much discussion the team were unified in presentation of the concept to the executives however after listening to reasoning management selected for a more exclusively store experience with the hope being potentially higher conversion rates. Neither decision was wrong or right the important thing is that time was given by all sides to understand the potentials and the drawbacks of different approaches.
Visual Design and Production
Having strong direction and inspiration from your previous steps always makes visual design easier. Most of the visuals were done within 1 week. Some of the more interactive or areas of more complex content bleed into a further week. The developer was additionally able to share our working designs as well as our wireframes to start development. The design was wrapped up after 8 weeks and it took only an additional week to launch the website.
Outcomes
Within the 7 week timeline we launched in week 8.
While it was not on schedule it was an impressive feat non the less, and delays had been well communicated and timelines accurately adjusted.
In comparing new web leads generated in 2017 to 2018, there was a 111% increase.
Collaborating on this project with me was Chris Zappala and Kelly Huffman, they are both talented individuals and I encourage you to take a look at their work as well. Additionally, the success of a project is always so highly dependent on the stakeholders themselves. The whole team at Fierce, was excellent at communicating, making essential decisions and getting the team what was needed to be able to do successful work in a limited timeframe.