Hoyng Rokh Monegier website redesign
THE BRIEF
Hoyng Rokh Monegier is an award winning boutique European IP law firm specialising in intellectual property law, including patents and trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights and design rights. They manage IP portfolios of some of the largest clients in the world.
HRM approached UNLIMITED with a brief to refresh their outdated website to reflect a timeless, clean approach and to improve user traffic to their vacancies page, and promote the company’s culture.
CHALLENGES
A key challenge of this project was developing the UX aspect as the client hardly had any user data from their previous site. Another challenge was getting approvals at key stages of the project from 5 stakeholders whilst adhering to a timeline. Multiple rounds of testing were also required at the dev stage due to multilingual functionality.
PAIN POINTS
PREVIOUS WEBSITE
PRESENTING INITIAL THOUGHTS
I joined this project a few weeks after the initial pitch was won by UNIMITED. This was a benefit as I was able to view this project through fresh eyes. Hoyng Rohk Monegier invited us for a meeting in their Brussels head office to present the next stage of the project which included:
Research
A revised sitemap
Revised timeline
Initial wireframe scamps
SEO best practice
UI design exploration
USER PERSONA
APPROACH
I analysed the existing content and developed a simplified information architecture consisting of 5 primary pages instead of 7, and fewer secondary pages which allowed for targeted, digestible information.
The new page structure consisted of repeatable building blocks (text and media elements that can be replicated across various pages to improve overall consistency). Cross-pollination of key content and CTA’s helped increase the click-through rate.
The culture page of HRM was elevated by incorporating a ‘meet and greet’ tertiary page within the ‘Our Team’ section. This helped make the site more ‘human’. and also elevated the cultural aspect.
Revised sitemap
TESTING
A lot of testing was done at the high-fi stage of the wireframing. Due to lack of data on the previous website a lot of in-person testing was utilized within the agency. The website needed to be translated into 4 languages, a lot of stress testing was applied to ensure the design was applicable.
Various building blocks
Meet and greet and vacancy pages
Initial wireframes
New layout for practices
New layout for partner profiles
UI APPROACH
From a UI aspect HRM approved of white space, balance of colour and image, and an intuitive layout. I built out HRM’s colour palette to include strong, cohesive and engaging colours and gradient colour fades. This allowed for a minimalist, streamlined user interface. A thumbprint graphic was applied as brand furniture across some web pages as a visual cue alluding to the trademark aspect of the business.
PARTNER PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography was a contributing factor driving the ‘human’ element on the HRM website.
I developed a brief that encouraged natural shots reflecting approachability, and openness. This new look and feel was applied to 144 partners across 6 European locations. Our in-house photographer was tasked to photograph all lawyers. I worked closely with the photographer to ensure consistency was kept throughout all locations.
INDUSTRIES & PRACTICES PHOTOGRAPHY
All of Hoyng Rokh’s Monegier’s industries are represented by abstract stock imagery with an applied duotone effect from the adapted HRM colour palette. This alternate approach gives a fresh perspective on thier industries and practices. See a few examples below.
Arbitration
Aerospace, automotive & marine
Telecommunications & networks
Biotechnology & biologics
Pharmaceuticals
Fashion & luxury goods
HRM PLAYBOOK
I designed a mini guide for HRM to act as a visual reference as and when HRM create new creative assets. This playbook acts as a guide to ensure that the look and feel of the HRM website is adhered to.
HRM BEST PRACTICE GUIDE
The SEO team at UNLIMITED created this mini best practice guide for HRM to help write their website content moving forward.
THE OUTCOME
The fully responsive new website design received praise from the client and their stakeholders for the simplified user journey process, faster page load speeds, and striking design which really helped HRM stand out as a major player within their field! The new vacancies page attracted more candidates. The new website also reduced HRM’s average page response time from 1042ms to 517ms (a -50% decrease!). Another improvement was the simplified content and page structure.