Brown Note Productions' existing website was clunky and difficult to navigate. Company owners wanted to level-up the visual design and make it easier for clients to find current inventory and services. I began by taking a full diagnosis of the website's pain points.
I also conducted competitive analysis to see what other industry websites were doing right, identify opportunities and establish design goals.
Competitive analysis and a deep dive into the existing platform revealed some clear pain points and areas for redesign.
Pain Point: The nav menu had 10 items split into two sections - 5 above and 5 below the homepage image slideshow. It was not intuitive for users to see the lower nav items as a part of the main navigation menu.
Pain Point: The header contained a contact block that was crowded, misaligned, and not hyperlinked, making it difficult for users to contact the business. YouTube was the only featured social media button, overlooking opportunity for clients to engage with the company's considerable social media presence. The footer featured a redundant navigation menu and another unlinked contact block.
Pain Point: The homepage content was split between two columns. In the left column, a list of featured news posts each displayed in its entirety, making it disorganized and overwhelming to the eye. In the right column, there were embedded featured video clips and another link to the company YouTube page.
Pain Point: The product details in the inventory pages were laid out differently in each section, some with product descriptions under product images, some with product descriptions next to the product images. Product images were different sizes and on white backgrounds. Product descriptions were varying in length and information. The entirety of their departmental inventory was displayed on one page, making it difficult to find specific products.
Working closely with Brown Note's President & CEO, I recommended design improvements aimed at creating a more cohesive and easily navigable web experience for their clients.
Solution: I recommended redesigning the navigation bar so all of the links were in one in-line menu. I also reduced the number nav items to 6 and added drop down menus for subpages, further organizing and simplifying the content hierarchy in the main navigation.
Solution: The company owners get the majority of their new business via incoming phone calls, so I recommended simplifying the header to include a call now contact button as well as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & YouTube social media buttons.
Solution: I recommended a clean, simple and streamlined homepage design. Brown Note had a plethora of beautiful pictures of their concert production work, so I suggested blowing up the image slideshow to make it the main focus and adding a concise company description.
Solution: My design decision for the inventory pages was to further classify inventory into sub-categories for easier navigation (e.g. lighting was broken down into moving heads, static lighting, spotlights, and lighting consoles).
Company owners took my recommendations into consideration and decided to move forward with my design decisions.
The redesign was well-received by the company owners and their clientele. Clients reported overall look and feel as well as navigation to be much more user-friendly. Potential customers were able to sort through inventory and find what they were looking for with ease, leading to more traffic to the website and more sales generated through web searches.
Brown Note introduced the expansion of their AVL Integration Division. I worked with company owners and the Director of Integration to add an Integration page detailing all of the newly expanded services.
The landscape for the live entertainment industry was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Brown Note made the quick pivot to providing virtual concert services. I created promotional videos and a new website page highlighting this new service.
Brown Note Productions expanded to include an extensive backline department. I worked hand in hand with Brown Note's President to organize and add all backline inventory to the available rental equipment pages.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to learn more about me or if you're interested in working together. Send me a message or shoot me an email at annaleightc@gmail.com
