Recent UI + illustrations/other design
Recent UI + illustrations/other design
Website Redesign
Brief Creatives
Digital Design Agency - Lisbon, Portugal
ABOUT
The Company
Brief Creatives is an international digital Design Agency located in Lisbon, Portugal that specializes in branding and marketing for companies.
the brief
(lol)
OBJECTIVE
Help Brief Creatives, a digital design firm located in Lisbon, Portugal perform research on their current website and propose new elements and/or a concept based on the findings.
SCOPE
2 week design sprint
OUTCOME
A reimagined website featuring new concepts and better user navigation with purposeful elements to match company branding.
PROCESS
client interview
Learn about the problem and goal
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research
Market Research
Designer Interviews
insights
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Market Research
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Competitor Analysis
CONCEPT
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Brand Identity
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User Flow
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Mood Board
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Style Tile
prototype
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Lo-Fi
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Mid-Fi
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Hi-Fi
TOOLS USED
Client Interviews Market Research v Surveys and Interviews User Flow Mapping Lo-Fi Mid-Fi Hi-Fi
Brand Identity Moodboard Style Tile
Research stages
Brand Familiararity
Understand the brand's identity + learn the current structure of their webpage
1
Research local and international design agencies
2
Get feedback from senior design professionals
3
Interviews
Market
Analysis
Brand Familiarity
To get started I interviewed the company to learn about the problem and why they wanted a new website. From there, I became familiar with key elements on the landing page, user navigation, interactive elements, and overall brand identity, and imagined myself as the user. This allowed me to navigate the next two stages by understanding who were the biggest competitors were, as well as what questions to ask in user interviews.
market analysis
I analyzed 15 digital design or product design websites by taking screenshots of landing pages, headers, footers, buttons, and color schemes. I also mapped navigation and recorded my overall impressions. From this analysis, I noticed each landing page had a very strong visual that covered the entire page - this was either a photo or video of client work, staff at the company, or an intriguing visual design or custom graphic. This is where first impressions are made by the user and where sites differed the most.
There was an overall neutral tone to competitor sites - either being predominantly white or black, which allowed for the client work to stand out from the brand of the agency itself.
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However, some competitors were very good at creating a unique brand DNA for themselves, while also remaining a separate entity from their client portfolios. The best examples of this were minimal, but bold accent colors added throughout their site.
And finally, almost all competitors had elements of interactive design, such as animations with how text or photos appeared or the behavior of page elements in relation to the cursor.
landing pages
interactive design
interviewS
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Overall, they loved the “About Us” and Brief's portfolio of work.
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Since I wasn’t reaching out to Brief’s clients directly, I decided to interviewed creative professionals instead: An Architect, a Senior Creative Director at an Ad Agency, Graphic Designer, Senior Copywriter of a Marketing Company, and a Photographer/Video Editor.
Individually I went through the website with each person and took note of their overall first impressions, as well as what they did or didn’t enjoy about their experiences navigating through the site.
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Highly regarded
client work
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Overall the designers suggested reducing the amount of content per page or per section because it made them feel lost, especially on the homepage which lacked a strong call to action or natural hierarchy.
They felt the amount of interactive design was distracting from important information on the page and should be reduced. They also mentioned the site should "show rather than tell" the client work by reducing text and adding larger graphics throughout the site.
Additionally, they strongly disliked the vertically displayed menu on the homepage and it's strikethrough as you highlighted over it.
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And finally, the overall appearance of the site felt dated - they preferred clean solid graphics rather than overlays, fades, and shadows, and there were mixed opinions on the grey-faced background words on many of the pages. ​​
mixed reviews
Background text overlays
strongly disliked
vertical menu and strikethrough
minimum viable product
For this redesign the two key components that I chose to focus on were the home page and also the portfolio showcase.
how might wE?
How might we bring more attention to the client work in a minimalistic and modern feel while maintaining brand integrity and identity.
prototyping
With my research complete, I began ideating mid-fidelity prototypes and testing them with users. After I felt confident about my general concept, I added photos and created a high-fidelity mock-up.
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More of the revisions were made during the high-fidelity testing stages. This involved changing the size or arrangement of the photos on the page, playing with white space, header and logo size, etc.
showcase of key areas
To improve the hierarchy of the homepage and allow new users to more easily understand the services of the company, this needs to be clearly labled on the homepage.
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portfolio page
Interviews from design professionals mentioned "show rather than tell" client work. This led me to create a large scrollable page to showcase their projects.
carousel
Carousel on the homepage to showcase some of the most stunning images of the companies work.
This is the style guide I used which was provided by the company. Their overall color scheme is natural black and cool gray with Open Sans and Arvo typefaces.
I chose to use black for the headers, Open Sans for the type, and similar to competitor sites, I added a blue accent color to create a stronger and more memorable branding identity to the company.
#247FD2
Accent color added to the style guide.
