Impetus Agriculture
WEBSITE ReDesign
Client
Impetus Agriculture
Techniques
Comparative Analysis, Mind Mapping, Card Sorting, Wireframing, Branding.
Timeline
August 2022 - Present.
Role
UX researcher, Visual Designer
Problem
Impetus Agriculture needed help defining a strong brand identity and visual language for their website. They wanted to be able to pique the interest of potential investors but found that their website did not stand out from competitors and was not effective in conveying their mission.
Solution
I defined a new visual language and completed a market analysis to create a strong and seamless interactive experience. Through redesigning the information architecture and organizing the content of the website, I curated a clear story to cater to Impetus' desired audience.
01
Defining the problem
Impetus Agriculture is an AgTech startup that delivers novel and enhanced insect control solutions. In my initial conversation with the client, I sought to gain a clear idea of the company’s goals, as well as their vision. With this in mind, I explored the website and noted areas of improvement and problems within the current design. In the final design, I was able to mitigate all of the problems.
Uninspired color palette
Not engaging, one-dimensional
Lack of visuals
Only two pages of content
Ineffective storytelling
Confusing organization
02
Redesign Goals
The client's primary goal within the redesign was to guide Impetus' branding in a new direction that would help them to stand out from competitors and break the typical design patterns of AgTech websites.
Agriculture is always green, how do we stand out?
How do we pique the interest of potential investor/partners and convey that we are serious and next level in our technology?
Redefine visual language to stand out from competitors
Strengthen storytelling, create digestible content aided by icons
Redesign information architecture
Highlight UVP, emphasize insects
Engage user with a dynamic and interactive layout
Add more compelling web copy.
03
Research
Comparative Analysis
I researched some of the most popular agriculture companies as well as AgTech startups on the rise, and examined their visual design, strengths, and weaknesses. I identified patterns in many different information architectures and navigation features to help inform design decisions as a moved forward in the process. Below are more detailed notes that I made on four direct competitors in consideration to their information architecture, content, design, strengths and weaknesses, and experience.
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Some Key Takeaways:
I also paid close attention to how competitors drew the attention of potential partners and investors, as well as their communication model for these users. I noticed a few websites found effective ways to emphasize their contact button as the main call to action. In some cases, this button would have more personalized language such as "Join Us" rather than "Contact Us", and would visually contrast other buttons in the navigation bar. Websites would also include many different locations for users to navigate to the contact form within most pages of the website. This was an important design pattern to consider in order to make it easier and more efficient for users to get involved.
Additional Visual Research
In order to target our design goal to make Impetus' branding stand out from competitors, I also explored other visually impressive biotech websites outside of the agriculture realm to see what they were doing differently. I compared these designs to other AgTech companies I found with a strong visual design languages.
04
Information Architecture
Completing my comparative analysis helped me to identify some of the content I felt was necessary to include on the website, as well as ideas for the organization and flow. I met with the client to discuss additional content and then began a basic organization of all of the information I received. As I was grouping content, I also thought about what information was most important and least important for the user.
Card Sorting
On the website, there were issues with the navigation, labeling, and organization of content. Information on the homepage was grouped into “WHAT WE DO”, “HOW WE DO IT”, and "WHO WE ARE"—but what was under each heading didn't seem to align well. Although I had some ideas for how I wanted to categorize content based off of my research, I decided to begin with an open card sort. I was adding a significant amount of new information to the website and I wanted to see how users understood and conceptualized the information. I completed in-person card sorting on Figma and noticed a pattern in how users were labeling and grouping information. I defined three categories and then completed another round of card sorting, but this time a hybrid one.
Sitemap
Through the insights I gained from my rounds of card sorting, I was able to create a new sitemap for the website that was much more informative and clear while still remaining simplistic.
Wireframing
With the sitemap defined, I created quick, low-fidelity wireframes of key pages. Using these wireframes, I conducted usability testing with four participants. This allowed me to gather some feedback to help me decide what to include in the final experience before jumping into the next iteration of the design. Overall, users had an easy time navigating the website and felt the information made sense. I just needed to address a few small issues with labeling and placement of buttons. After ensuring the functionality of the wireframes, I moved on to designing the UI.
04
Design
Accessibility
Before working on the visual design of the website, I completed an audit based off of WCAG 2.1 to test for accessibility errors in the current design. There were a few visual errors with interactive elements and color ratio, so I kept these in mind as a moved forward in the design process. I created three color palettes that were AA compliant and presented them to the client, and we settled on a bright shade of blue as Impetus' brand color.
Branding
I established clear branding guidelines for Impetus based off of my visual research and comparative analysis. I wanted to define a visual language with a "tech ambiance" that is seen on biotech websites that many AgTech websites fail to achieve. I made sure to moved away from the standardized yellow-green and busy images seen on a majority of competitors' websites.
High-fidelity Mockup of Homepage
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Previous Homepage Design
Next Steps
Impetus Agriculture's website is still under construction so I plan to continue creating high-fidelity mockups of the website and conduct more usability testing. I am also working on redesigning the logo as a part of Impetus' new branding.