Brand & Website Creation
Résumé Lezlie
As top-to-bottom website designer, creator, and UI/UX design generalist for 7 years, I created pages and user flows, continuously improved user experience across multiple user types, eliminated user roadblocks, and increased site performance.
Brand
Challenge: Developing an effective branding strategy.
Early on, thought I needed to present my business as a large entity in order to have credibility. I soon learned the importance of connecting and developing trust with the user/consumer at every stage.
Solution: Develop a personalized brand that gets noticed and connects strongly with consumers.
Brand & Logo
I created this brand from scratch with absolutely no prior experience. I dove deep into understanding branding, color psychology, font pairings, graphic design, web design, SEO, copywriting, social media marketing, and everything else I could about about trying to grow a small service-based business.
Final Logo
Brand / Logo Evolution
Brand Colors
Brand Fonts
User Personas
Developed based on audio recordings of ~200 client sessions (after about 2 years in business) and the 5 common ‘user types’ my clients fell into. I used that information to create ads (below) and inform many other decisions across marketing, copywriting, and service offerings.
Persona 1
Recent Grad Starting Their Career
Persona 2
Mid-Level Manager Seeking Promotion
Persona 3
Stay-at-Home Mom Returning to Work
Persona 4
Sr. Manager Job Searching After Layoff
Persona 5
Career Changer
Website
Challenge: Website development
I created the first website on Weebly, and developed from there. I eventually rebuilt it through WordPress, then continuously updated and improved the design and function.
Shown below is from the end stages of my business, when my 2 main user groups were DIY customers and 1-on-1 clients.
Solution: Design and develop an effective website for multiple user types.
Information Architecture
Homepage
Hover (desktop) or tap (mobile) each image to reveal explanation points for each section. Hover/tap each number to reveal explanations.
Full Page
Hero Image: Personal photo lets users immediately start feeling connected.
Motivational Messaging: Curated from real client conversations.
Professional Credibility: Letting users begin to build trust
Menu: Providing users easy access to the most common 'next step' questions.
Engaging Messaging: All curated from either real client conversations or trending industry language and keywords.
Glowing Testimonial: Building trust through a happy client telling what it's like to work with me.
Introduction: Building trust through credentials and strong storytelling about the why behind the work.
Modeling: Allowing users to see themselves in the description of other clients.
Service Options: Offering DIY and 1-on-1 options, to maximize efficiency & profit through passive income.
(continued)
Professional Credibility: Letting users begin to build trust
Extensive Form: Weeding out users not interested in making the investment of time (or money).
Social Proof: Building more trust through more client stories.
Credentials: Building trust through statistics on experience and client successes.
About: Building trust through sharing more experience, credibility, and examples.
Footer: Credentials, page and resource links, and a little motivation.
Strategy:
Throughout 7 years in business, I always had multiple user types, which meant I needed a website that could cater to each of them individually. For many years, I grouped them by career level/situation (based on the user personas above), and eventually moved to a passive income (DIY customers) / active income (1-on-1 clients) approach.
Brand Continuity:
Starting early on, I committed to consistency with brand colors, font pairings, UX design, visual stye, copywriting/voice, messaging, and social media presence. I regularly reviewed the brand and analyzed performance and feedback for improvement opportunities.
Outcome:
35% YoY business growth for several years, largely due to the perfomance of the website. There were also several years where I was getting consistent compliments on the website from clients and colleagues alike.
Sections in Action
Above the Fold
Hero Image (Parallax) +
Animated Text + Pop-Up Video Button
Intro
Entrance Animations
Service Options
Entrance Animations +
Hover Interactions
Testimonials
Interactive Carousel
Stats
Animated Number Counter
Service Option Pages
Designed and developed targeted pages to address user pain points more directly and create a smoother, more customized experience for each user type.
Do-It-Yourself Resources
(Press play)
1-on-1 Services
(Press play)
Mobile Responsive
Bold Messaging
“Soul-Sucking”
Based on the user persona research, I noticed a common theme: many people felt like they were in a soul-sucking job.
That phrase was so commonly used by clients that I incorporated it into my marketing across my website, LinkedIn profile, blogs, and and visual media.
And it resonated in a big way with my target audience:
