Synergy Computer Solutions Transformed for the 21st Century
Background. Synergy Computer Solutions, Inc. is an IT Consulting Services and Strategic Staffing company with a 25-year-old history of deep industry experiences, technical knowledge, and corporate achievements. Synergy excels at staffing IT and Engineering positions in the US and providing offshore development support of IT solutions.
The Problem. Despite sharing the name Synergy with dozens of other IT and non-IT businesses across the US, Synergy Computer Solutions, Inc. excelled in driving the business by providing quality professional services and building a great rapport with their clients. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in 2020, Synergy like many other companies had to rapidly acclimate to a digital corporate landscape. In order to stand out from the competition, a fresh digital presence was a must.
My Roles & Responsibilities
UX Research. Shifting through 25 years worth of marketing material and print collateral, I pulled together the content needed to elevate Synergy's offerings and services. I relied on traditional research methods, SME interviews, and competitive analysis to guide decision-making for the website's information architecture. Deep competitive market research was used to inform many of the design and information architecture decisions.
UX Design. From sketches to wireframes, I designed web pages that utilized reusable components to create a sustainable design. I assembled a mood board and collected UI component references to provide better design direction. The visual designer and I worked closely to test, revise, and validate branding and web design decisions.
Copywriting. With 25 years of history to boast, Synergy had content ready to share. I helped give voice to that content and included keyword-rich phrases in the copy for better SEO. The new content strategy laid the framework for future inbound marketing. This involved working closely with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify nomenclature appropriate for marketing highly technical subjects and establishing user-friendly content categories.
Tools of the Trade
Figma
Unsplash
SurveyMonkey
Canva
Coolors
FontAwesome
Freepik
Gloomaps
My Team
Leslie, Project Supervisor & SME
Goutam, Front-End Development/Visual Designer
Anand & Venkat, Developers
Neha, Editor
Project Specs
Scope: 9 Months, 3 Phases
Requirements: full redesign, rebranding, platform migration, new logo design, full copywriting, SEO
Great User Journeys Need Good Roadmaps
The very first line of Synergy's mission statement is "Synergy provides quality IT & Engineering services that solve diverse business challenges". The company's original navigation structure provided clear directions for Synergy's target audience: prospective business clients and job-seeking candidates. However, this organization (sitemap left) tucked away many of the company's most prominent pages.
The current website navigation (see image right) is restructured so that clients can immediately locate the answers to what services, what industries, and what's Synergy accomplished right in the navigation. For job-seeking users, the previous navigation label "For Candidates" separated the information on the task of finding jobs and submitting a resume to work with Synergy's recruiting team. By changing the label to Careers, we created a first-level page that clarifies and breaks the process of job-hunting into sub-tasks.
Architecting Digital Spaces
Millers' law states that "The number of objects an average person can hold in working memory is about seven...plus or minus one or two." As you can see in the original services page (image left), the Professional Services category contained a list of more than 10 items. This is simultaneously too much information and too few answers. The list also combined technical services like Machine Learning and Network Engineering with business services like project management and business analysis.
In the redesign (image right), I developed a content strategy that better organized and sustainably conveyed Synergy’s Services. Synergy's end users, prospective clients, are already industry professionals who expect to see certain terminology on the company's website. I gathered data from various competitors to generate groupings and categories that would ease a client's ability to find information on the website. By splitting a 10 item list into 3 pages with 4-5 additional subcategories, I made it easier for clients to navigate to the information they are looking for.
Figure 2: Ideation
Figure 3: Lo-fi Sketch
From Sketches to Wireframes
This website was redesigned from the ground up. With a goal as broad as "Better UI for Better UX" and "Digital Transformation for the 21st Century," the sky was the limit when it came to designing.
So of course, the best starting point was research. While researching competitors, I inventoried UI components I liked, that had interesting micro-interactions, or that might be suitable for visual groupings of information. From hero banner styles to card designs and icons, I collected and created a design reference for the Visual Designer. I worked off the same reference document to conceptualize page layouts, sketch the wireframes, and finally create digital wireframes in Figma. Since the Visual Designer had access to the same document, it was easy to convey abstract ideas with concrete examples and speed up the design workflow.