Zentail
Zentail is a Y Combinator Class of 2012 (YC S12) start-up that aims to make e-commerce simple. With their multi-channel e-commerce platform/software, high performing sellers can automate their operations. As their first in-house design contractor, I collaborated with the marketing, sales, and engineering team to design and develop the company website. Our aim was to optimize conversions and increase user retention/reduce bounce rate.
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The Challenge
The website redesign was a priority for Zential for several reasons. 1) The founders wanted to develop a brand and company design system that reflected their growth and better represented the product. Also, to remove the inconsistencies between the product and its supporting materials. 2) Leverage their digital footprint to establish credibility with prospective clients. As a SaaS product that required demos before onboarding, our website needed to attract the right customers to maximize each demo our Business Development/Sales team scheduled. The challenge was to build and launch this new platform in two weeks and construct it in a way that it could be easily sustained after my departure. Let the games begin… 😈
Industry Research
Before we put pencil to paper, better yet pixel to screen, we conducted in-depth industry research. We identified our competitors and printed out their entire websites and brand-related materials. To ensure our research led to insights, the following questions guided our process.
Who is their audience?
What is their unique selling point?
How are they positioning within the industry?
This exercise allowed us to uncover the industry’s recurring theme and identify each brand’s unique attributes, including our own. We discovered our positioning and began thinking through the experience we aspired to create for our users.
Designing for the User
We explored various layouts and information architecture models during this stage to determine which best served the user journey and experience we wanted to provide our customers.
Being the first point of contact for most customers, the sales team provided some useful insight, including feedback they’d received from customers regarding the company website. The content team also pitched in by providing actual content that I could design around.
Branding/ consistency
I created designs and materials that respected the company’s brand and style guidelines, forming cohesion across the various mediums and products where the brand lives. I stuck to the teal and aqua color palette and was intentional about including Ziggy, the company mascot (he’s hard to miss, trust me) into the design. I occasionally partnered with the designer and illustrator(s) who created the initial branding and illustration style.
Development
One of Zential’s requirements for their new website was that it be built with sustainability in mind. We chose Webflow as our development environment. This would allow the team to make updates easily, stand up landing pages, and add new content. It also created an infrastructure that could easily be built on top of as the company and brand expands.
Although I had some prior experience in web development, this was my first project in Webflow. To get up to speed and ensure I met the two-month deadline, I spent hours after work learning and educating myself on how to build reliable solutions in Webflow.
Results
The redesign proved to be valuable to the company from the first day we deployed the product. User acquisition and website user growth increased by 240%, page views increased by 60%.
Marketing & Business Development/Sales Collateral (Bonus)
I also worked with the marketing and sales team to design marketing collateral for prospective customers. These items played a major role in the acquisition of several accounts. I guess good design does drive revenue.
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