Portfolio Home
A minimalistic layout for a B2B Textile wholesalers. Portfolio Home wanted a simple, informative ‘brochure-style’ website to show potential buyers what they’re all about.
The Brief
The client said: “We are looking at creating a basic ‘brochure’ site with no complex functionality, that is just there to explain Portfolio Home to potential wholesale customers”.
The aim was to limit the amount of pages to make the website simple enough to navigate, while also informing future customers. The main content to include was a blurb about the company, a description of the products, quality/service promise, an ethics/sustainability page, and a list of individual retail brands on offer. The client wanted the website to be designed within the month.
Initially, the clients feedback was that they wanted the different segments of the about page on different sub-pages. However, it was suggested that if they wanted a brochure style website, then this would’ve been counterproductive, and the website would become more complex to navigate. The end decision was to have each segment title in a sub-menu, which directed the user to the correct position on the page.
Otherwise, the client thought the wireframes were heading in the right direction, and wanted to proceed to add visuals.
After reviewing the first draft, the client liked the simplify of the design as it aligned with their goals for the end result. In terms of amendments, they asked for the header image to be made bigger so it was more immersive, and an image carousel to be included on the homepage to show their various brands. Finally, they asked for the ‘Brands’ page to be filled out with more images, as well as each brands logo.
Once reviewing the amendments, the client was happy to proceed onto the development stage of the website.
The prototypes reflect the clients wishes of an informative website that show the variety of products they offer. A classy, professional design has been maintained throughout the project, while also allowing a visual hierarchy, where product images speak for themselves.
Afterwards
The work I did for Portfolio Home was my first freelance project, and so I took a lot of valuable insight from it. Before this project, I was used to having complete creative freedom, now I had to remember that it wasn’t my website, but my clients. Although I could give advice and a general direction, the had the final say on how the website reflected their brand. I also learnt the importance of working on a tight schedule, as I only had a month to provide visual prototypes. In this situation, communication with the client was vital to ensure constant feedback was given ad improvements were made so that a professional standard prototype was available to present by the end of the month. Finally, I learnt that researching competitor websites was just as important as user research, especially in this instance. As this website was for B2B purposes instead of B2C, the website requirements and user needs differed, so looking into similar websites was important to understand what is to be expected.
