Founded in 2018, Sentropy is a tech company that provides AI-based content moderation solutions to protect online communities and interactions from abuse. Because the sales performance of their existing website is not satisfactory, the ask was for us to create a new company website that increases leads and conversions.
We, together with the Strategy and Development team, delivered a completely revamped website that the client is very happy with. It clearly establishes Sentropy's role within the category, illustrates relevance for various-sized organizations, educates audiences on the company's value with applicable use cases, and moves users through the entire customer journey funnel toward demo and sales.
After workshops and interviews with stakeholders, our strategy team created three experience pillars that answer what the website needs to do.
They also supplied us, the UX team, with three target audiences by priority, which guided me on who our users are, what they need, and what stories to tell in order to help them understand the business and brand differentiation.
We each individually did a content audit of Sentropy's current website and reviewed all the content files that the client supplied. Then we organized all the available content on a Google Jamboard for easy retrieval. This allowed us to collectively decide what content to keep and how it can be integrated into our new information architecture.
In order to come up with what content I might need to request, I needed to further understand what different audiences might need to see on the website so that they can move through each step of the buyer journey. Therefore, I collaborated with the other intern in making a buyer journey map for the top priority target audience, highlighting what users are doing, thinking, and feeling, as well as opportunities.
While I started thinking about what stories to tell and how, questions emerged in my head. So, I wanted to find out how Sentropy's competitors answer those questions on their websites and identify some of the strengths and weaknesses in their design.
The biggest challenge at this stage was to structure, name, and show the product/service offerings in a way that is both accurate for the business and easy to follow by users who are primarily management in startups. We talked to the sales and engineering teams of the client to fully understand and further flesh out their product offerings.
We found that the distinction among the four products was not clear, and the prioritization among target audiences was not considered in this structure.
As a result, we restructured Sentropy's "platform with products" as "solution with features." We also helped them rename the features to better indicate meaning and prioritize them based on personas.
We, then, did an overhaul of the website structure with the goal of allowing users to easily move through the buyer journey when they navigate the site, finding what they need at each stage.
Specifically, the new website structure:
Before wireframing the pages, we made zone diagrams to decide on how we want to tell the story, what the goals and messages are for each page section, and what content we need to present. By doing this, we also gathered client feedback and requested more content from them.
Moving on to wireframing, I personally took on navigation design when we were working on the sitemap together. My quick wires helped the team explore and test different possibilities by visualizing them for both the client and us.
We then conducted ideation sessions to come up with ideas for the wireframes, while revisiting the 3 experience pillars to make sure we follow them while creating an overall better website user experience.
Sentropy is the new standard. On one hand, we need to educate users about how their current solution is not enough. On the other, we need to establish the new standard by telling a story about Sentropy solution in a way that's relatable and memorable to users.
We achieved this by further refining brand and product messaging with the client, showcasing results with case studies and testimonials, and providing industry-specific content to contextualize the standard for users in different industries.
Technical jargon gets in the way. The website story should be benefit-led, but not feature-led. We designed benefits blades to translate the direct value of advanced technology to users. We also placed mini product demos throughout the experience so that users visually see how Sentropy makes a difference.
To bring all the features together and deliver a sense of an ecosystem, I came up with the idea of having an illustration that shows the features in layers, which also corresponds to the concept of Sentropy logo. The inspiration came from the competitor research I did earlier.
Sentropy solution is "deeper" than its competitors and internally-developed solutions. I brainstormed with the team to come up with ideas, and the outcome included an interactive demo on the homepage and comparison charts on feature pages, among others.
After a few rounds of client feedback, we finally delivered 19 screens and handed them off to the copywriter and creative design team.
Although I always knew that business is inseparable from design, I was still fascinated by how closely design is related to business, especially in an agency environment. Clients come to us because of their business needs, such as to increase leads and boost sales, but as a designer, I need to keep in mind both the business and its users. The ideal place to be is a balance between their needs.
When designing a marketing-oriented website for B2B clients, I must understand that website users usually differ from the end-users of clients' products or services. In this project, the management of startups and potentially IT-procurement individuals in bigger companies visit the website to buy products for their trust and safety teams to use. The website should, then, speak to the website users and be relatable to them, although understanding the needs of end-users, trust and safety teams, is also helpful.
Although the way I set up this case study might make the process seem like a step-by-step one, it was certainly not. For example, when we started zone diagramming and wireframing, we uncovered many alternative ways of making the IA better, so we went back to iterate that a couple of times until both we and the client were happy. Some activities, like content design and competitor research, were performed throughout the process after the main part was done in one design phase.
I embraced the beauty of uncertainty and was not hesitant to leave assumptions behind or let ideas go.
Due to the slowdown of businesses during COVID-19, our clients tend to put off user testing in order to stay within their budget. They are willing to take the risk of potentially spending more on fixing issues after their website launches versus making things right during the design phase.
In this project, the budget did not allow us to recruit users to do card sorts before making the site map. I also wish I had the chance to test our designs, especially the IA, so that I could iterate and make sure the website is easy to understand and navigate, thus contributing to increased leads and conversions. However, after the website launches, our client will have some stats to reveal potential issues and opportunities for improvement.
