Problem
The exhibition industry was growing more than 10% annual profit but Axis Designers faced saturation from 2015-18
The exhibition industry is the business of scale, therefore Axis Designers decided to look for strategies to grow and penetrate new markets. Therefore, in 2020, they approached our team to renew their branding and re-establish their online presence.
Design Challenge
How can we re-establish a 25-year-old brand in the evolving Exhibition Industry and provide an identity that resembles the previous brand and responds to the new normal?
The industry presence of Axis designers around the world developed over 25 years with traditional marketing techniques of emails, calling, and word of mouth. However, the firm decided to embrace the digital world to improve its online presence with a brand-new image and website experience. With COVID-19 halting the exhibition industry, the founders perceived it as an opportunity to introduce services to diverse organizations as well as reconnect with the existing clientele on a deeper level.
Sneak Peek
All service offerings are in one place
Axis Designers will be able to offer all their design services to their existing and prospective clients through one portal.
The approach: How did we actually get there?
Understanding the organization and collecting pieces
I started with understanding the organization’s working structure and stakeholders’ vision for the organization to articulate the need of the project. Simultaneously, I also started analyzing the content of the existing website and through the marketing team, understood their interactions with the website.
Early insights from the team
Unable to expand clients
The marketing team is unable to get business from UK and USA even though the company is successfully working in the Middle East, and Asia regions.
Inability to share/add to/modify online portfolio
The team found it difficult to use the website and introduce their work, which resulted in them relying on PDF portfolios and sharing their projects via other documents.
Incomplete information regarding the location of work
Management wants to incorporate and highlight updated information to showcase their firm on diverse platforms.
Unstructured content and visuals
Management was frustrated with not being able to share the website after doing commendable work due to the disorganized content and graphics.
Research
Usability Testing 16 Clients
Interviews 16 Clients
We conducted semi-structured interviews and usability testing with the participant group included 16 young professionals between the ages of 25-50 years from the Middle East and Asia. These participants were recruited from the pool of old clients and other acquaintances in the exhibition sector through word of mouth.
Deeper Insights
Understanding User pain points
The existing impression of the website allowed us to measure the impact on clients’ decisions. I analyzed the data along with the in-house marketing team from Google Analytics and Alexa Analytics to understand the bounce rate of the website and we also found that our traffic is majorly generated from Asia and Europe.
Dysfunctional home page
Most of the clients find the two videos on the home page frustrating as they are unable to perform any action while the content is playing and they end up leaving the page.
Confusing Labels
Labels have no description to explain to them which creates confusion for target clients and does not convey the firm’s potential to the clients.
Irregular User interface and Visuals
Throughout the website, there is a lack of uniformity in terms of visual language and interaction which affects the user experience.
Interrupted flow
Navigation between pages and links is not standardized across the website
Ignored Content priorities
Awards are extremely relevant for some clients because they can relate to that information but the awards section is placed at the bottom of the page.
Content doesn’t make sense
Projects are presented through photos and videos but there is not any other information related to the project or client which doesn’t give a complete picture. In addition, the footer contains links in different styles which makes the navigation confusing.
Clients expectations
The clients would like to understand the firm, their experience, projects, and how they work in the design industry. Most importantly they want to use the platform to send their requirements so that the company can get back to them with an initial proposal.
Reframing the Purpose
Redesign the website to generate queries and project company expertise with an evolved brand identity, keeping in mind the client’s experience with the website.
To incorporate the existing clients’ needs and bridge the business goals, we decided to integrate SEO and digital marketing aspects. In addition, we decided to offer “Free Consultancy” to decrease the client’s hesitation. Further, we collaborated with an external digital marketing team and web development team as I coordinated the redesign of the website.
Redesigned Information Architecture
Through a thorough research and design process, we created a new platform for Axis designers which would ease their process of connecting with new clients and one that the present-day user could relate to.
Website (Mid-fi)
Learnings: What did we learn?
Understanding User’s need is first
It is important to understand the user and their pain points through research which helped me to analyze the problem and gather meaningful insights. Conducting primary research or usability testing backed up our design decisions.
Design coordination to align with business goals
This is my first project in which I coordinated a team of more than 20 people from start to finish. Working with opinionated individuals was a fulfilling experience as we managed to leverage our diverse expertise to create something new. I also realized how business and design goals work hand-in-hand to achieve the desired outcome.
Agile process
Beginning to involve in the whole process from data gathering to development, I understood the agile product cycle and navigate through it which was a challenging but learning project.