Ethan Nelson
Total Home Restoration
Case Study
Background
Total Home Restoration (THR) is a Lockport Illinois based company that specialized in installing Windows and Doors. I worked with the owner to design a website to increase customer traffic and increase brand awareness.
The Challenge
With so many construction companies that specialize in windows and doors it is hard to stand apart. THR needed an easy way for customers to discover them and reach out to request a quote and consultation, along with a place to show their work and reviews.
Identify & Research
The Competitors
My first step before meeting with the client was research their competitors. I took notes of pain points and essential actions for users. From this first investigation, I discovered features that would be helpful to implement and issues I could resolve in THR's new site.
The Users
After the meeting with the customer I created a questionnaire for homeowners, the main customers targeted by THR. I conducted interviews of various homeowners about what they look for in a company and what would be the deciding factor to choose one company over another. From these interviews I was able to create user profiles to keep my designs focused on the average customer.
Design
Moodboard
Once I had researched into the average user and customer of THR I had begun my preliminary designs of the website using Figma. My first step into this was creating a mood board for the site to keep the design consistent throughout the process. This acted as my style guide and as my design hierarchy.
Wireframes
The wireframe here was designed to streamline the process of the customer who is searching for examples of work and reviews. Throughout the process many layouts were attempted but from the research done prior it showed to keep it simple and easy for customers as to not overwhelm them with options and to the information easy and clear to access. The clear call to action button on the page at all times helped with this.
High Fidelity Designs
The wireframe work I had done in the previous step had really helped designing the high fidelity version of the website. Though some issues arose as the best way to implement the design with the photo materials that were available. I was happy with how the HERO section turned out. The review section I had a few design options to choose from and consulted with the client who chose the middle option. I was unhappy with the services section. I had gone through several iterations that would best showcase the work that THR had done while also making it clear the services they provided. Due to budget constraints I had to push through the home page design to integration.
Implementation
Once the designs were done I began work on implementing the site on Wix. I had begun implementing the designs from Figma following closely to my initial designs and iterating on them when it was necessary. This especially came to a head with the design of the services section of the home page. I had gotten new material to implement which made the design better but still not perfect due to Wix's limitations.
After the initial implementation I worked in the backend to optimize SEO for the site and drive traffic. while implementing the site I activated the contact page with links to the business email and integrated anti-bot protections to avoid spam. I then worked with the owner and google representatives to link his google account with reviews to the website.
In the end of implementation I proof read the client provided texts for the website and made small changes to ensure elements were the correct scale and the website was responsive. I still work with the client to update the website and troubleshoot any issues they might have with it.
