The Challenge

 

Before the redesign, numerous site issues prevented the company from making online sales. To make my case, I identified these. First were usability issues. The site did not function on mobile and, when adjusted for half-sized screen sizes, completely lost structure and had numerous overlapping elements. Not only was this unusable and unreadable, but it was also unprofessional. Consumers first look to trustworthiness and professionalism when shopping online with small businesses. The design in that state communicated the opposite. 

 

Secondly was user flow and site structure. The site read like an informational site lacking avenues and points for customers to enter a purchasing funnel. The original site hid products on a separate product page instead of presenting them first. In this site structure, the focus was a primary issue. The site focused on the company itself and the people behind the scenes, not allowing for the products themselves to shine. The site allocated just as much space for an "about us" section as it did for products. 

 

 

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The Solutions 

 

Firstly we explored different options for site-building. I compared and contrasted several options and presented them to leadership for evaluation. The switching of site-building tools immediately addressed the major usability issues. Mobile functionality and resizing worked better instantly. Originally leadership wanted to hire a CS student to volunteer to edit the existing code to fix usability issues over a period of months. By switching to a better and more accessible site-building tool instead, I reduced our time to launch by over 90%. 

 

I began reimagining the site flow by prioritizing our products first. First, I created an engaging landing page focused first on products. The landing allowed users to see our first three significant products, followed by one slide enabling users to learn more about the company. Products were followed by a section with a summary of the company's mission and a link to learn more. This action reprioritized the homepage and better balanced the mission explanation with funneling users to products. This pattern repeated throughout the site. 

 

Additionally, we discovered that our mailing list generated a considerable portion of our online sales. So I added a pop-up to convert customers and options to sign up at checkout and the bottom of critical pages. Our mailing list has since generated thousands in sales.