SlyBrand

So, I’ve been slowly working over my main website over the last 3 months (preview above). It’s been largely an after-hours project that’s felt more like the enjoyment that comes from cleaning house, than work.

Some great things have come out of the discipline of methodically working through this project. First, and possibly most important, I have a new “elevator pitch“. This retooled mission statement has been a filter that’s guided me along the path of production. Exactly what a mission statement should do.

Secondly, by taking it slow, I’ve been able to pay better attention to how the user will approach and use the site. I’ve learned from my user experience friends that this is an art in itself.

I’ve also continued to wrestle with the Fox Design Co. brand. I’ve decided to return to the logo I created back in 2001, with a few minor tweaks. I hope to post an evolution of that mark soon.

A new favicon and secondary graphic have also come out of the process. They’ll be around soon too.

As for the site being finished, I’m hoping in the next two weeks or so you’ll see the fruits of my tortoise-like labor.

One of my biggest accomplishments at ServiceU was the rebuild and redesign of their website. We took it from a web 1.0, info-smattered, outdated design to an up-to-speed new site that is easily found on Google, communicates directly and is intuitively navigable.

Despite the transition, we were able to maintain and improve the high Google rankings of search terms from our old site and add newer search terms into the new site. While we approached the development of the site in three specific areas (search, content and navigation), the site’s overall purpose remained to tell ServiceU’s unique story. It was designed as a central hub for the various tools we had at our disposal to communicate all the great things ServiceU’s customers needed to know.

After designing this site from scratch, I am now a firm believer in the use of a content management system that integrates into a well designed website architecture. But, all-in-all, it was a good exercise to work through this site from ground up. As I said before, our team’s, primary concern was how the story of ServiceU could be best told through the website medium. It was also a great crash-course that helped me better get my mind around what ServiceU did, and an opportunity to push myself and our team to communicate this clearly and concisely.

I’ll be posting more about some of those various storytelling tools soon.