Identifying Opportunity & Risk
We knew from the start that we could greatly improve the design aesthetic. The challenge was to achieve a superior design and make the site mobile, all while maintaining the optimization work that the client had already done.
Wireframing
Wireframes are a crucial part of pre-design strategy when the team needs to focus on information inclusion, forms, and calls-to-action. Designs are pretty, and like most pretty things they are distracting.
Zeroing in on layout, we were able to carry over all of the content known to be valuable to users and give priority placement based on that value. In addition, because each page has a good deal of content, we were able to place a lot of valuable information in each sidebar to pull the user through the site.
Designing for Information Abundance
And we do mean an abundance! Typically we recommend minimal design and information, providing enough to generate leads. As we learned in our discovery process with Stephen, in the real estate world “just enough info” means “a ton of it.”
To keep the clean look we strive for and help the visitor’s eye parse information on the page, we combined several techniques. Flat design, icons, separate sidebar sections, and a clearly defined testimonial + contact form section all contribute to the smooth presentation.
Flat Design
Lead Generation Form
Well-spaced Sidebar CTAs
Displaying Authority
Potential clients want to know about your past work. Displaying over 300 sold properties by type, every visitor can feel confident about working with Stephen.
High Volume Content Transfer
With over 2oo blog posts and over 300 property listings, this site was not small by any means. We had planned significant effort to make sure that all the content made it to the new site safe and sound. What we didn’t expect was to find a very specific bug in WordPress’s article transfer that prevented this from happening correctly. Happily, our developer, Jason, was able to write a custom script to handle the issues, and we continue to employ this script for other projects today.
Results
Even though the original site had been optimized for conversion, our redesign was able to achieve lower bounce rate, more time on site, and more page views per visitor.
Crosshatch Creative re-did my 200 plus page website, and did an amazing job! My only regret is that I did not contact them sooner. The site is slick, responsive, and frankly – impressive. I would recommend them to anyone.
– Stephen FitzMaurice, Owner