qai-inc.comQAI Website Redesign
Overview
QAI provides organic certification for food and personal care products. The organic certification process can be intimidating and complex. We had an opportunity to address this concern when redesigning their website.
Problem statement: How can we make the potentially intimidating and complex process of organic certification feel more approachable?
Role
UX/UI Designer/Lead Developer
Deliverables
Competitive Analysis, Site Diagram, Sketches, Wireframes, Mood Board, Mockups, Final Website
Role / Activities
I was the sole designer and lead developer on our in-house team that included the web manager/programmer, marketing and business stakeholders. I was responsible for the UX deliverables, including competitive analysis research, site diagram, sketches and wireframing as well as determining the overall design direction and coding the majority of the front-end.
Site diagrams and wireframes are blueprints that help lead the way.
Site Diagram and Wireframe Examples
Project Details / Process
The QAI team wanted ways to differentiate the brand from the industry competition, so I recommended a competitive analysis to help identify the content and functionality of competitor websites. I did the research and provided a detailed report on my findings along with recommendations that could benefit our users.
I worked with the marketing and business teams along with our web manager to develop and make recommendations on the site architecture. I created sketches and a full set of wireframes. Once I refined the wireframes with the team I moved on to higher-fidelity design deliverables. I also created a series of mood boards based on the approachable feeling we wanted to provide.
Research should help inform design decisions.
Idea Board Examples
Solutions
The new site has a bright, happy, seamless and professional feel reflective of QAI's service style. This also provides a more approachable introduction to the organic certification process.
The competitive analysis work I did revealed an opportunity to add more robust industry resources to the new site in the form of a filterable library. This library also helps to simplify a complex process by providing users quick access to necessary documents and helpful guides. Since the launch we’ve also added a separate learning resource area on the site to house videos, webinars and training modules to further help users with the organic certification process.
Always keep improving solutions.
Before
After
Results
After launch overall users for the site were up 29%, new users were up 28% and sessions were up 19% over the previous year and those numbers continue to climb. The document resource library is one of the most active areas of the site with nearly double the average time on page compared to the site average.
Analytics provide insight on how well solutions are working.