The Client: A Trailblazing Cybersecurity Firm Going Global
Sequretek is an industry leader in designing and developing AI- and ML-based product suites that enable enterprises to anticipate real-time cyber threats and safeguard their critical assets. With a team of highly skilled professionals dedicated to providing innovative offerings that simplify security, Sequretek is making waves in the cybersecurity space globally.
The Challenge: A Web Presence to Reflect Their New Offerings and Outlook
The client looked to revamp their website to provide an enhanced User eXperience that matched their lines of transformation and the simplicity of their products. The ask for Clearly Blue was to turn things around in less than two months – to coincide with their participation at cybersecurity’s mega event – the RSA Conference 2019 at San Francisco!
Our Approach: Simplicity at the Core of Design
The UX design team at Clearly Blue rose to the occasion and made a complete, seamless UX transformation of the website – from a service-centric to a product-centric website. We undertook the turnkey project – a user-centric design cycle comprising requirements analysis, design, planning, implementation, testing and deployment of the website. Apart from this, we mirrored the cadence of the content with their mission to take the complexity out of cybersecurity.
The Clearly Blue UX team included a UX Designer, an Information Architect, two UI Designers, a development team (HTML, CSS, Javascript, WordPress), a WordPress Product Expert, five Content Strategists, a Language Editor, a Quality Analyst and a Project Manager.
Requirements Analysis: We started our engagement with the evaluation of the current system, conducted interviews with stakeholders at the client’s end and performed a competitive analysis of other players in the space across the globe. These helped us better define the problem statement as well as to identify opportunities to enhance the end-user experience. The plan was clear: build a website that stands out – provide an enriching experience to the user while keeping it aligned to Sequretek’s core message – simplify security.
Information Architecture: The Design Phase started with the discovery and analysis required to build wireframes – the bare-bones structure of the website reflecting the new content taxonomy and hierarchy. As always, the wireframes were the result of intense ideation and low fidelity prototyping (a.k.a paper-and-pencil sketches and scrawls on the whiteboard).
The information architecture rested on the following first principles:
- No content to go below 3 layers deep (home page + 2)
- Content categorization as per the pillars of Innovation, Industries and Products as discussed and agreed upon with the client. This categorisation meant that the same content could be reused across different pillars within multiple contexts
- A “problem-in” approach to content – presenting problems with innovative visuals (infographics, videos) and then detailing Sequretek’s unique solutions to the problems.
Balsamiq was used to develop technology-agnostic wireframes that were easy to implement.
PIC: WIREFRAMES THAT PIVOTED CONTENT FROM SERVICE_CENTRICITY TO PRODUCT AND INNOVATION-CENTRICITY
After due consultation with the client, incorporation of feedback, and a sign-off on the wireframes, it was now time to implement them.
Content Strategy: It’s an oft-ignored maxim: Content forms the base of great UX. Our team of expert content strategists sifted through the legacy site content and retrofitted reusable parts as per the new content categories. Sections and section headers were rewritten to refresh the branding and messaging, as well as to make the copy more engaging – an important requirement in this era of attention spans measurable in seconds! Our language editor pored over the content with a fine tooth comb, dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. This phase was particularly detailed as our client CEO was a writer himself and was particular about language and style.
In parallel, Clearly Blue’s UI designers were hard at work on the visual design aspects. They made the content come alive with mood boards, iconography, fonts and styles that reflected the client’s updated branding.
PIC: THE UI: SIMPLE, ELEGANT AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, USABLE
UI Design: Visual design followed these precepts:
- An international look-and-feel to suit the company’s aspirations and plans in the global arena – our senior designer took particular care with fonts, kernings and other small details to ensure this
- Faithful adherence to the client’s brand colours in all creatives – including visual design of pages, iconography and infographics.
Implementation: Next was the crucial part of choosing a content management system. The CMS had to be exhaustive but simple to implement and manage. After careful deliberation, we chose WordPress. Our expert WordPress product manager suggested the best fit theme while the development team executed a prototype.
Based on the client’s feedback, in subsequent agile sprints, we launched a state-of-the art website – just in time for the client to showcase their brand new digital presence at the much-awaited cybersecurity trade show of the year.
Our lean, mean, agile UX team hit a home run – once again!