ppl stuff's Website Redesign

Aligning an HR consultancy's branding with their business objectives.
6 MINUTE READ

Project Overview

ppl stuff is a people & culture consultancy that works primarily with growing businesses in need of external HR support.

Having just undergone a rebranding, they needed their website redesigned to align with the new look and feel. This was also the perfect opportunity to improve the UX of their website, in order to better convert visitors into clients.

After chatting with ppl stuff's founder, the biggest problem faced by their prospective clients was clear: since most of them are new to the world of HR, they don't actually know what they need.

Role

UX Designer, UI Designer

Tools

Otter, Figma, Wix

Deliverables

Wireframes, High-Fidelity Designs, Website

Year

2021

The Problem

Many of ppl stuff's prospective clients know they need HR help, but aren't sure where to start. They need to understand what their options are so that they can feel confident reaching out.

How can we simplify their journey, from identifying their needs to contacting ppl stuff?

Research

I needed to get a better understanding of both their clients' needs and ppl stuff's own business objectives.

My first step was to get input from the expert: ppl stuff's founder and lead consultant, Jennifer Babic. I sent over a questionnaire to learn more about ppl stuff's services, goals, and clients.

Sizing Up the Competition

Next, I checked out some competitors' websites to see what we could learn from them.

Bloom

Bloom is a leading "workplace design" consultancy operating across North America and London.

On top of having multiple CTAs per page leading visitors to their Services and Contact pages—ok, that was an obvious one—Bloom does a great job at bucketing what they do into 4 core services. This makes it easier for visitors to quickly identify their needs without being overwhelmed.

They're also clearly interested in working with companies that are ready for rapid growth, highlighting this with a full section on their homepage.

Bright + Early

Bright + Early is another North American HR consultancy that specializes in working with scaling startups.

Since—as Babic shared—most people new to HR don't know what they need, it's smart that Bright + Early frames common problems first before offering solutions.

Learnings

In a nutshell, here's what I found out:

Business Objectives
  • turn visitors into clients
  • build credibility
  • update visual design to align with the new brand
Client Persona
  • small but growing businesses
  • ready to invest in their people and people operations
  • no internal HR team
  • not sure what they need
  • determined to scale
Competitors
  • consultancies offering external HR services in North America
  • emphasize their ability to help companies scale
  • bucket their services to make them digestible
  • frame problems before offering solutions

Analysis

With these learnings in mind, I then took a look at ppl stuff's current website. A few key opportunities for improvement emerged.

  • their services were not yet organized into easily-understood buckets
  • arguably the most important page for converting visitors into clients—the 'contact us' page—was hidden inside a 'more' drawer on their header nav
  • aside from the homepage, all other pages were missing CTAs
  • there was an unnecessary cart button (ppl stuff doesn't sell goods through their site) in the header nav, which took up a lot of vertical space on mobile

Site map

Before wireframing, I quickly sketched out an updated site map, charting out new pathways that lead visitors to the 'Contact us' page.

Original

Updated

Wireframes

Now for the fun part: wireframing! I created wireframes for each page, writing copy as I went. Getting at least a first draft of the messaging down really helps ensure the purpose for each section and page is crystal clear from the start.

Final designs

Once we'd finalized the wireframes, I redesigned and rebuilt the website directly in Wix to meet our deadline. Thankfully, their editor was surprisingly intuitive and I could build reusable components, which cut down production time significantly.

Now, ppl stuff's website not only aligns with their rebrand, but lays out their services in a straightforward way while leading prospects to get in touch.

Check out the website here.

On the home page, we broke down the services into 4 main buckets. I then added a callout banner to address people who don't know what's best suited to them, leading them to the Contact page. 'Contact us' is now the main call-to-action button in the header.
I also added a Services page, which leads visitors into the 4 services subpages while also highlighting ppl stuff's bespoke offerings.
Every page throughout the site now has a call-to-action button leading visitors to the Contact page.
On mobile, the 'Contact us' button is now outside of the hamburger menu so it's always present as visitors scroll.
There's also a big 'Contact us' button inside the hamburger menu.
And because we removed the shopping cart icon, the header nav no longer takes up so much vertical space. The contact form now appears above the fold!

Conclusion

One of my favourite parts of any project is measuring its impact afterwards. Looking back, I wish I had helped ppl stuff's team set up a few key tracking and analytics events so we could see how much the redesign affected conversion.

If that data had been available, I would have wanted to know what percentage of site traffic submitted a contact form before vs after.

Qualitatively though, I'm happy to share that my client was thrilled with the final results!

I had a fantastic experience working with Leah, who recreated my website. She understood the direction I wanted to go, provided examples and ideas and expertise flawlessly. She was also so helpful in answering all of my questions and concerns, and provided great direction while also staying true to my vision. Leah is really a pleasure to work with and provided insight on appropriate movement, colour, compliance and navigation best practices. Our site is now so much more beautiful, elevated, easy to use and professional looking. I would hire her again and recommend her to others.
—Jennifer Babic, ppl stuff founder

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