LiveTouch.net is a telephony company local to Alameda, CA, that came to Gillico early in 2009 looking to freshen up their website and print collateral. They were about to launch some new products and wanted a new look to appeal to potential customers. Gillico was asked to take a difficult to navigate homepage and bring it to life, and make it more usable.

Here’s where the site began:

There are several problems with this version of the home page. It’s unclear what the purpose of the page is, what it’s trying to say or do, or where it leads. It is very cluttered, with a lot of imagery that doesn’t give a cohesive message. The big building in the middle is actually a rollover, which affects the three tiny little buttons on the side. The header seems to be a customer service center talking to rush hour bridge traffic. Not only that, the page content continues on considerably further after where I cut off the screen shot. The navigation bar seems to have duplication in several areas (Solutions and Solution Delivery). All in all, it didn’t seem to relate, certainly not in a concise way, to the client’s product, which is Business IP telephony services, nor did it provide an inviting experience to a potential customer visiting the site for the first time.

It was clear that the first goal was to clean up the page by eliminating unnecessary elements and simplifying the navigation to establish clear pathways for users to take through the site. I harvested all of the basic content, took out all the photographic elements, created some white space, and emphasized the primary navigational choices for users. I also wanted to establish a clean grid and palette of colors for the page to create a visual standard. For color choices, I used variations of the colors of their logo, which seemed to be an obvious choice that would match with their existing corporate branding and communication. Those first few steps created a radical difference in the look and feel of their site:

Then, after that, I began adding in some imagery again and used that as the basis for some variations to show the client. I did some research into some of their competitors to see what other sites the market space looked like. We also did some work on the amount of content on the front page, and with my help, whittled it down after some back and forth discussions to just the key points. The site is very deep in content, and I wanted to make the front page inviting and welcoming, not overwhelming. I was able to convince them to cut way back on the amount of copy, and to focus it much better to attract the proper clients. We also found by working on the copy, the key phrase to what their marketing efforts going forward would be: “Stay ahead by staying in touch.”

There were certain elements that seemed necessary to retain, like friendly faces and phones being used in different ways, and I even managed to keep the building too! What I felt was most lacking from the previous design was a connection between the user and the company, that would make people connect with the site and want to go further into the pages and want to find out more. Although the budget was limited, I did have access to a good stock photo archive, and was able to find the right images to illustrate not only the right kinds of technology for the company, but also the right kinds of people that they wanted to connect with.

After a couple weeks of revisions we decided upon and went live with this final design:

Their webmaster was able to take the style sheet and color schemes and apply them to the rest of the content-managed site to match with the newly-designed front page, and now the whole site has been freshened up and looks sharp to match their new product offerings! Gillico also helped LiveTouch by redesigning several illustrations within the site, adding a consistent and professional look throughout. Whereas before the graphics were previously drab and thrown together with mismatched clipart, I created diagrams and artwork that were unified and part of a family that really enhanced the image that LiveTouch was trying to project:

Gillico was also asked to create a couple of PDF sales sheets, in line with these main illustrations of Voice Solutions and Intelligent Communications. They also match the site design and corporate identity scheme, and are easily printed or downloaded from the web.

That’s quite a difference for their image from beginning to end in just a few short weeks, you might be thinking! And yes, it was! How you represent yourself and your company on the web and in your printed materials is usually the first way potential clients get to know you. But a small investment in your outward appearance will pay off big dividends when people choose you over your competitors.

Did we mention this makeover cost LiveTouch.net under $5,000 from start to finish? Contact us now to discuss how Gillico can help you!

posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pm in design, eponymous.
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