Case study: A new look & reorg for Virginia Beach Law Group

The project

The Problem

The current site had an outdated look, but was also disorganized from years of adding content without a good structural foundation. They had pages that were hard to find, and content that could only be accessed from various specific touchpoints.

Our objective

The Virginia Beach Law Group’s tagline was “Where clients become family”. They felt, and we wholeheartedly agreed, that their site could do more to communicate that idea. In addition, we wanted to help them modernize and create a structure that would be sustainable for years to come. A place to house all their current content in an organized, sustainable way and accommodate regular content updates and frequent blog additions.

My role

UX design
Information architecture
Visual design
Development & testing

Tools

Axure
Sketch
WordPress

The Process

Step 1: Taking inventory

I set out on my journey through the existing site. There were buried links to key info and navigation menus in multiple locations. Users needed a clear hierarchy to find information, and the information provided needed to be reworked for understandability.

Step 2: Competitive Analysis

In my initial research phase, I wanted to see what competitors were doing for both informational structure as well as visuals. I began by looking at the direct competitors in the area. Lots to be found, but many of the sites looked amateurish with a lot of “in your face” graphics and language. There was a whole lot of noise, yet it was hard to “hear” what was being said. It seemed many of them had the same problems as the site we were about to redesign.

I also looked at what firms in the bigger cities (Chicago, New York, Atlanta) were doing to see if I could find anything more inspirational. I did find some that were more compelling, but surprised that, even in the bigger markets, there was still a lot of the same.

Step 3: Making sense of the clutter

As I was doing my site audit, I made notes of all the types of information. Then I began to organize it into buckets that would make sense, keeping long-term sustainability top of mind.

As a key part of my process, I then set up a work group with the key players on both the agency and client side, to get feedback, as well as see if there are any obvious holes in my “story”. This helps head off potential problems up front, so that later on, when the client inevitably says “can we add this” (and they always do) we can respond by saying “sure, but that’s adding to the previously approved scope” which, of course, translates into additional denero.

After a little back and forth, we ended up with a solid structure that could take them well into their future.

Step 4: Visuals

After the structural phase is complete, I set out to create the look and feel. I created 3 visual options for them to review, focusing on the home page only, with desktop and mobile views.

During the review processs, the client quickly gravitated toward one design with only minor tweaks (every designers fantasy). And, we were off!

After the home page was complete I began to flesh out the sub pages. I was concerned with ensuring there would be a contextual internal linking structure that could connect the information a user might need as a next step. Example, if a user is on an Area of Practice page, I wanted them to easily find which attorneys specialized in said area.

Step 3: Development & Cross-browser Testing

After the design phase, I began to develop the finished product on wordpress, using the genesis framework.

The result was a modernized site, responsive on all devices, that had a well-organized structure with, as they say, “a place for everything.”

The final

Features of the new home page:

- A well-organized header area that contains:
  - Navigation that provides a gateway into all site information
  - Prominently placed contact number that will recur on each page for easy access
  - Social media icons to access the companies active social media pages
  - A call-to-action to “request a consultation” that will follow users throughout the site
  - A visual overview of the firm’s capabilities
  - A prominent testimonial that will be a recurrent feature throughout the site. A more effective replacement for the previous and cluttered testimonials page.
  - Attorney photos that linked to the attorney’s profile
  - A brief description of the firm with a link to read more

Subpage features include:

- - Well-structured attorney bio that highlights skills, areas of practice and other important info so it can be accessed at-a-glance.
  - Internal linking strategy that connects information to related information.
  - A new law blog that provides a snippet of the article to give users a quick glimpse into its content
  - Contact us page that contains information about both locations on a single page, including phone numbers, a map and a form for online inquiries