UNUM Website Redesign – A Brand Refresh Project

Timeline

May 24, 2021 — June 10, 2021

My Role

Web Designer, Visual Designer, Communication with Stakeholders and Developers

Team

Dillon Morgan – CEO James Bali – 3D Visual Designer Tara Purswani – Copywriter Flow Ninja – Web Development

Project Type

Web Design, Visuals

Background

Since 2015, UNUM has grown to 15 million users across 190 countries. It helps creators showcase their passions on Instagram. Since 2021, UNUM aims to support users in all aspects of storytelling: branding, content creation, collaboration, publishing, storage, integration, and analytics.

As the only designer for this project, I collaborated with a 3D visual designer, a copywriter, and developers to create responsive web designs. I collected requirements from Marketing, utilized materials from Product, and promptly provided final designs to the developers.

Goals

Our goal for the website redesign of UNUM was to show how it has grown from just an Instagram planning tool to a complete social media manager. We wanted to give UNUM a fresh new look to highlight its improved features and to help creators and businesses build their brands better. Below are some specific business objectives:

  • Refresh UNUM's look: Design a new style that makes UNUM stand out. Make visitors feel like UNUM can do everything for managing social media.
  • Improve UNUM’s blog: Make UNUM's blog "StoryTimes" easier to find on search engines and organize articles better. Make the articles easier to share.
  • Boost conversion rates on the Pricing page: Design a straightforward pricing page with compelling CTAs to encourage conversions effectively.

Research

Current website

In the beginning of the design process, I analyzed the current website. While I appreciated its aesthetic photography representing UNUM's creative audience, I identified several issues.

Old website screenshots
  • Hard to read: The website's text is too small, resulting in poor readability. Additionally, lengthy paragraphs and a lack of visual hierarchy make it challenging for users to engage with the content effectively.
  • CTA style not prominent: Call-to-action buttons lack sufficient emphasis, causing user confusion and hesitation. Moreover, the presence of numerous options for actions overwhelms users and impedes their decision-making process.
  • Out-dated information: The website contains outdated information, such as only offering the iOS app for download despite the availability of services for other platforms. This inconsistency may lead to user frustration and a loss of trust in the platform's reliability.

Look and feel

The website's appearance was shaped by a series of icons I created. UNUM Cloud comprises Design, Publish, and Insights, allowing users to create, publish, and analyze their social feeds within UNUM. Following discussions and iterations based on CEO feedback, we opted to maintain UNUM's black and white theme but introduced bright neon colors to enhance visual appeal.

Timeline

In just three weeks, I faced several challenges as the only web designer on the project. I had to design the website's layout and graphics, including finding photos that fit UNUM's style from sites like Pexels and Unsplash, seeking images with a neon light look. With a tight deadline, I made sure to focus on important stuff like the menu and footer first to prevent delays in handoff to developers.

We hired a copy team from outside, but they lacked comprehensive knowledge of UNUM products. So, they couldn't write about some of the new and critical features we wanted to market on the website. To help them out, I added some sections with placeholder text and images based on what I know as a Product Designer at UNUM. This made it easier for the copy team to understand what we needed, and they were able to work faster because of it.

Site map

We utilized Octopus to generate a site map, which allowed the copy team to update the content directly. This was a huge help for me because I didn't have to start the information architecture from scratch, and it really sped up our progress.

Site map in Octopus

Final design

In the end, we provided the development team with a style guide, 13 open graph images, 30 pages of web and mobile designs, and over 30 reusable components.

Homepage

Homepage design after

Header Design

Pricing page

UNUM Blog — StoryTime

Style Guide

Open Graph Images

Some open graph images for shared link thumbnails

and more screens

Results & Reflections

Completing this project was a journey of learning and growth. I gained insights into maintaining a consistent brand image while crafting visuals and messaging. Effective team communication was crucial, ensuring our content and design aligned seamlessly. The web development agency appreciated our designs, and the UNUM team was thrilled with the outcome. This new design looks clean, modern, and the information on the website is easier to digest. Post-launch, we saw significant growth in website traffic, with visits increasing from 40K to 70K per month and unique visits rising from 10K to 30K. It's rewarding to see our efforts translate into tangible results.

Background

Since 2015, UNUM has grown to 15 million users across 190 countries. It helps creators showcase their passions on Instagram. Since 2021, UNUM aims to support users in all aspects of storytelling: branding, content creation, collaboration, publishing, storage, integration, and analytics.

As the only designer for this project, I collaborated with a 3D visual designer, a copywriter, and developers to create responsive web designs. I collected requirements from Marketing, utilized materials from Product, and promptly provided final designs to the developers.

Goals

Our goal for the website redesign of UNUM was to show how it has grown from just an Instagram planning tool to a complete social media manager. We wanted to give UNUM a fresh new look to highlight its improved features and to help creators and businesses build their brands better. Below are some specific business objectives:

  • Refresh UNUM's look: Design a new style that makes UNUM stand out. Make visitors feel like UNUM can do everything for managing social media.
  • Improve UNUM’s blog: Make UNUM's blog "StoryTimes" easier to find on search engines and organize articles better. Make the articles easier to share.
  • Boost conversion rates on the Pricing page: Design a straightforward pricing page with compelling CTAs to encourage conversions effectively.

Research

Current website

In the beginning of the design process, I analyzed the current website. While I appreciated its aesthetic photography representing UNUM's creative audience, I identified several issues.

Old website screenshots
  • Hard to read: The website's text is too small, resulting in poor readability. Additionally, lengthy paragraphs and a lack of visual hierarchy make it challenging for users to engage with the content effectively.
  • CTA style not prominent: Call-to-action buttons lack sufficient emphasis, causing user confusion and hesitation. Moreover, the presence of numerous options for actions overwhelms users and impedes their decision-making process.
  • Out-dated information: The website contains outdated information, such as only offering the iOS app for download despite the availability of services for other platforms. This inconsistency may lead to user frustration and a loss of trust in the platform's reliability.

Look and feel

The website's appearance was shaped by a series of icons I created. UNUM Cloud comprises Design, Publish, and Insights, allowing users to create, publish, and analyze their social feeds within UNUM. Following discussions and iterations based on CEO feedback, we opted to maintain UNUM's black and white theme but introduced bright neon colors to enhance visual appeal.

Timeline

In just three weeks, I faced several challenges as the only web designer on the project. I had to design the website's layout and graphics, including finding photos that fit UNUM's style from sites like Pexels and Unsplash, seeking images with a neon light look. With a tight deadline, I made sure to focus on important stuff like the menu and footer first to prevent delays in handoff to developers.

We hired a copy team from outside, but they lacked comprehensive knowledge of UNUM products. So, they couldn't write about some of the new and critical features we wanted to market on the website. To help them out, I added some sections with placeholder text and images based on what I know as a Product Designer at UNUM. This made it easier for the copy team to understand what we needed, and they were able to work faster because of it.

Site map

We utilized Octopus to generate a site map, which allowed the copy team to update the content directly. This was a huge help for me because I didn't have to start the information architecture from scratch, and it really sped up our progress.

Site map in Octopus

Final design

In the end, we provided the development team with a style guide, 13 open graph images, 30 pages of web and mobile designs, and over 30 reusable components.

Homepage

Homepage design after

Header Design

Pricing page

UNUM Blog — StoryTime

Style Guide

Open Graph Images

Some open graph images for shared link thumbnails

and more screens

Results & Reflections

Completing this project was a journey of learning and growth. I gained insights into maintaining a consistent brand image while crafting visuals and messaging. Effective team communication was crucial, ensuring our content and design aligned seamlessly. The web development agency appreciated our designs, and the UNUM team was thrilled with the outcome. This new design looks clean, modern, and the information on the website is easier to digest. Post-launch, we saw significant growth in website traffic, with visits increasing from 40K to 70K per month and unique visits rising from 10K to 30K. It's rewarding to see our efforts translate into tangible results.