From Concept to Delivery: Redefining Reed Leeper, P.C. — A Design Journey Case Study
Beyond the Split: Crafting a Fresh Digital Identity for Reed Leeper, P.C.
July 2023 — Spring 2024
The content in this post was collaboratively written by Gavin Hall, Olivia Shapiro, and Molly Linder.
Project Overview:
This collaborative project aimed to rebrand Reed Leeper, P.C., a Marietta, GA-based law firm with a comprehensive overhaul of their brand identity and website.
Stemming from the crucial need to reflect the firm’s successful litigation history during a firm restructuring and significant rebrand, the outdated logo was refreshed to align with the new dynamics of the firm.
Simultaneously, a new website was crafted to seamlessly deliver updated information, streamline the online presence, and enhance accessibility.
Throughout this journey, our designs underwent various user-testing stages, allowing us to refine and improve them based on valuable feedback.
As you explore the journey detailed below, you’ll uncover the story of triumphs and challenges that shaped our path toward achieving these goals.
As you explore the journey detailed below, you’ll uncover the story of triumphs and challenges that shaped our path toward achieving these goals.
The Tools:
Roles:
Throughout this project, the workload was a shared responsibility with each of us focusing more heavily on our individual areas of expertise:
- Gavin Hall: Gavin’s primary responsibility involved crafting written content. Functioning as the team’s wordsmith, he meticulously crafted and edited nearly every written piece produced. Moreover, he assumed the role of content strategist, offering guidance to ensure consistency in brand voice and tone, website design, and presentation and documentation structure.
- Molly Linder: Molly took on the role of project manager. Responsible for overseeing the maintenance of the project’s website hosted on the NMI server, she ensured the team remained informed about upcoming deadlines and deliverables. Additionally, Molly edited project deliverables content and produced videos, including both the Alpha and Beta versions, as well as the trailer.
- Olivia Shapiro: Olivia played a pivotal role as the team’s UX/UI designer. She spearheaded market research, crafted user journeys and personas, contributed to prototyping, and conducted user-experience research. Furthermore, she served as the primary point of contact for our clients, ensuring effective communication of their needs and feedback as the team progressed through the development of their brand identity and website.
The Problem:
Embarking on this journey, we pinpointed Reed Leeper, P.C.’s pressing issues in outdated branding and website functionality, leading us to identify key areas for improvement during their comprehensive rebrand.
Rebranding Needs:
In August of 2023, the firm restructured from Busch Reed Jones & Leeper to Reed Leeper, P.C.. Chad Reed and Jeff Leeper became the new and only named partners at the firm. Due to this change, the existing logo, website, and overall branding had become outdated and no longer reflected the firm’s identity, necessitating a comprehensive redesign to address this misalignment.
Website Challenges:
The challenges extended beyond branding their current website, which presented a series of issues:
- Outdated branding: The website still prominently featured the old logo and contained references to staff members who were no longer part of Reed Leeper, causing confusion and inconsistency.
- Complex navigation and cluttered layout: The website’s design included numerous different graphic elements, resulting in a confusing navigation experience. Users were overwhelmed by dense blocks of text without clear accessibility tools or language translation options, hindering overall and widespread usability and accessibility.
These shortcomings highlighted the critical need for a revamped online presence to enhance user experience and align with the firm’s new branding.
The Solution:
Navigating the evolving landscape of this project, our journey unfolded across multiple phases, each marked by critical design decisions and creative breakthroughs:
Competitor Research:
Before diving into the rebranding and website overhaul, we conducted thorough research on local law firms’ digital presence.
We noted significant discrepancies in the quality and features of websites belonging to both direct and indirect competitor firms. Among the more appealing sites, common elements included client testimonials, Google reviews, and visually compelling imagery, complemented by comprehensive team profiles. Conversely, sites with lower-quality digital footprints, characterized by information overload, convoluted legal terminology, and maintenance issues such as broken links and outdated information, were unmistakably less trustworthy in conveying the firm’s ability to deliver top-tier legal services.
For additional insights, you can explore our Competitive Analysis Brief in Canva.
Brand Redesign:
We initiated the process of crafting Reed Leeper’s new identity by engaging in discussions with our clients, Chad and Jeff, regarding color palettes and typography options. Concurrently, we began the development and presentation of several logo variations. Following careful consideration, the clients selected a logo that struck a balance between simplicity, memorability, and professionalism. Additionally, we provided them with several variation options to accommodate diverse needs across the office. While selecting a new domain posed some challenges due to preferred options being unavailable, we collectively decided to choose r-llaw.com.
Upon finalizing these pivotal brand decisions, we proceeded to create a comprehensive style guide. This guide encompassed the firm’s updated color palette, typography, relevant abbreviations, mission, tagline, and imagery. Serving as the foundation of our efforts, this comprehensive guide played a critical role in ensuring a cohesive and well-aligned design structure for our website.
We were excited to see the early implementation of our redesign as the new logo was showcased on their monument sign, building sign, and various charity golf tournament merchandise!
Website Ideation
Drawing from our thorough competitive analysis and discussions stemming from brand identity considerations and insights from the client base, we identified three pivotal features that shaped our approach moving forward. These key elements served as the foundation as we transitioned into the website ideation phase.
Three Key Features:
- Accessibility: During our competitive analysis research, we observed that several of our client’s competitors’ websites lacked clear accessibility features, hindering users with diverse needs from accessing their content easily.
- Language Availability: Through conversations with our client during the brand discovery and redesign phase, we discovered that a significant portion of their clients are fluent Spanish speakers.
- Simplicity: Reflecting on the process of navigating legal issues and seeking appropriate legal representation amidst a plethora of digital options, it became evident that a complex website should not serve as a barrier to accessing legal information or representation.
Website Development
After solidifying the brand identity and potential key features, we embarked on our website development journey by utilizing Figma to create a functioning website prototype. Through this prototype, we facilitated early feedback collection from our client to align our design ideas with their expectations. Additionally, we conducted brief user testing sessions to ensure a user-centric approach before commencing actual website development.
Use the link below to view the prototype:
Once we collected and analyzed the feedback from the prototype, we began our website development journey by opting to use WordPress for its versatility. As we designed the website, the implementation of our three key features was at the front of each decision we made.
How we used the three key features:
1. Accessibility: We implemented a floating widget positioned in the top right corner of the screen. The accessibility feature includes:
- Text Size Control: Easily adjust text size for improved readability.
- Visual Adjustments: Options for grayscale, high contrast, and negative contrast to cater to individual preferences.
- Enhanced Readability Features: Underlined links for clear navigation, a light background for better visibility, and user-friendly fonts contributing to enhanced readability.
2. Language: The translate button enables effortless translation of our website content from English to Spanish.
3. Simplicity: We redesigned the website to streamline information and emphasize hierarchy, ensuring content is easy to read and navigate.
We began adding new information to the website and improving existing content to meet our goals for the new site. Copying over 132 blog posts posed a challenge, but the website started taking shape.
While organizing the blog posts, we encountered obstacles with the WordPress theme. After switching themes three times, we found one that aligned with our design ideas and plugins. With each theme change, we had to manually update the appearance settings and content to meet the client’s requirements.
We waited for our client’s contract with a website management company to end, allowing us to swiftly launch the new website in December of 2023 without disrupting our client’s online presence.
Despite numerous challenges, including multiple theme switches, the redesigned Reed Leeper, P.C. website took shape. Explore the transformation in the video walkthrough below.
User Experience Testing & Analysis:
Following the launch of the new Reed Leeper website, we developed a user-experience research plan for Zoom-based user testing sessions.
This plan involved conducting a pre-test survey via social media to recruit 8 participants from our target population: individuals over 18 seeking (or potentially seeking) legal representation in construction, personal injury, real estate, or wills & estate law, including native Spanish speakers, reflecting a portion of the law firm’s client base. Explore the results in our User Experience Research Results document below.
We examined task-success ratings, where success was defined as completing a task with 80% or more success, indicating minimal assistance required. Across all participants, task success rates ranged from 94% to 100%.
In addition to task success, we analyzed participants’ reactions using production reaction cards. Participants selected 10 descriptive words from a list to characterize our product. The top descriptors chosen were accessible, clean, appealing, and inviting, as shown in the word cloud below.
Furthermore, we conducted a post-test survey using the Likert scale to gauge participants’ opinions and attitudes towards the website. 8 out of 8 participants found it easy to locate and comprehend information related to legal services offered at Reed Leeper, P.C., while 7 out of 8 participants found the Spanish translation option somewhat or very effective.
Participants provided feedback, with one stating, “The way that it’s laid out [the website] and presented really does help to make me feel like they are a law firm that cares.” Another commented, “I feel like it all flows nicely — I don’t struggle to read any of it. Everything has been easy to navigate.”
Based on testing results and survey responses, we identified two areas for improvement: making the category drop-down on the blog page sidebar more obvious and expanding the placement of the practice states map beyond the home page.
To address these, we adjusted the title of the sidebar and added the practice states map to the “Why Hire” and “Practice Areas” pages of our site.
Results:
Key Takeaways:
- Persistence and Adaptability: We demonstrated flexibility in overcoming challenges, showcasing the importance of perseverance in complex design projects.
- Practical Application: Our project highlighted the real-world impact of design principles in solving branding and website challenges.
Website Accessibility and User Experience:
Positive feedback from user testing sessions praised the website’s accessibility features and intuitive navigation. Iterative design improvements resulted in an inclusive and user-friendly browsing experience.
Continued Growth and Handoff:
The website was designed to empower Reed Leeper, P.C. to easily edit website content without the need for extensive web design knowledge. We conducted comprehensive sessions where we reviewed branding guidelines with them, ensuring they can confidently make branding choices and place additional merchandise orders while remaining compliant with the style guide. Additionally, Olivia Shapiro remains available to collaborate with the client beyond project completion, providing ongoing support for major updates and additional needs.
This seamless transition equips Reed Leeper, P.C. with the necessary skills and resources to evolve their digital presence effectively and sustainably.
For additional information on our journey, check out our Project Website.
