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Background
Cara Caulkins Communications is a boutique PR agency based in Austin Texas. They are a growing company that is doing a ton of great work but their current website doesn't reflect that. For this project my task was to redesign the homepage of the site to better fit their vision.
Existing homepage - caracaulkins.com
Problems
The existing Cara Caulkins website is difficult to navigate, visually outdated, and required potential clients to search through the site in order to do business with them. My first goal was to define the exact causes of these issues.
Key Insights
I used the following research methods to dig deeper into the issues users were experiencing with the site: business research, market research, heuristics analysis & usability tests.
All tested users had confusion around the services being offered. (100%)
All tested users felt that the website was outdated and reflected poorly on the business. (100%)
Most users commented on the number of pages they had to click through to find info. (80%)
Solutions
01
Consolidate sub-page content onto homepage
02
Make it easier for new clients to contact business
03
Update website design to a more professional look
Design Solutions
To ensure that I'd achieve my goals by the end of the process, I came focused on interactions that correspond to each one.
01. Consolidate Content
On the existing site, related content is spread across multiple pages, requiring users to jump around the site to get a full picture of the company.
According to Semrush, 41-55% of users bounce after visiting the homepage. This means that it's vital to address a user's needs within this single page. And this was my aim here.
02. Easy to contact
During user testing it was noted that the only way to contact the business was on the last page. This means that potential clients need to search to find that info.
To solve this I added a button to the header and a component at the bottom of the page.
03. Visual Redesign
The existing site has a light and flowering design, giving it a less professional look.
While CCC is a smaller agency they are still professional and the updated look aims to reflect that.
Design Process
In order to get to the above solutions, I generated concept sketches, wireframes, and ultimately high fidelity mock-ups. Once the mock-ups were in hand I tested and iterated. These steps led me to my final design.
Wireframes
Iteration 1
User Testing
Vague language - To address this I adjusted copy to be a bit more descriptive
Page feels unfinished/bland - I went back and looked at minor adjustments I could make to address this. I ended up going with an image background style and also reduced the blue background shape.
Contact link at the top gets lost - To address this I increased the height of the nav and created a CTA rather than a typical link so it would stand out.
Style Guide
Final Design