Specialist Blinds designs, creates, and sells bespoke blinds. The company positions themselves as experts in blind technology. Their team approached KIJO to completely rebuild their website, focusing on improving SEO and conversion rates. They were also constrained by an outdated, restrictive theme, which made it difficult for them to update the website independently.
The existing theme limited their ability to efficiently customise, update content, create landing pages, modify layouts, and run marketing campaigns. It also featured a bloated, convoluted sitemap, minimal calls to action (CTAs), and was in need of a brand refresh. All of these issues negatively impacted the overall user experience (UX), SEO, and conversion rates.
So, the KIJO team set out to rebuild the Specialist Blinds website. Our goal was to make it more visible, easier to update, and more effective at converting visitors.
Reduction in Users Unintentionally Navigating to the Wrong Page
Google Lighthouse Scores
The main user personas identified were:
Many of these users shared similar user journeys. The key journeys that crossed many personas were:
With this information and a clear idea of user goals and journeys, we could build a clearer, more succinct sitemap. However, we needed to maintain a level of detail that ensured the fulfilment of the user’s goals.
When it came to simplifying the sitemap, we assessed the SEO performance of every page on the existing website. Pages that generated no traffic were removed from the sitemap. We found multiple unnecessary “About Us” and “FAQ” pages. These negatively affected the user experience, caused confusion, and made it difficult for Google to rank these pages due to unclear keyword themes.
To address this, we integrated FAQs into product and service pages, which increased the chances of ranking well by extending the word count on each page. We also consolidated the “About Us” content into one page and added an “Our Promise” page. This allowed users to fully understand Specialist Blinds without navigating multiple pages.
Additionally, we removed the various FAQ and gallery pages, placing their content on the relevant service and product pages. This resulted in a streamlined sitemap and a more pleasant user experience.
Founded in 1995, Specialist Blinds has over 25 years of experience making high-quality blinds. They are a traditional company wanting to appeal to a modern audience. Inspired by this, we chose a serif/sans-serif style for their design’s typography. This balanced tradition and modernity well.
When it came to the colour palette, we selected timeless beige neutrals. However, we added pops of gold and red which injected excitement whilst maintaining a luxury feel.
In the design system, we opted for squared-off user interface (UI) elements, such as buttons and text inputs. These looked more professional and premium compared to rounded edges. For the full-fidelity designs, we used our orbit block system to allow more flexible layout options. That’s because this was a limitation of the previous locked theme.
Specialist Blinds has 9 product collections. Showing these as 9 separate cards would have been cumbersome and overwhelming for the user. Instead, we created bespoke blocks for these product categories on the homepage. These update when a user hovers over one of the product collections. This limits excessive scrolling, simplifies the user journey and is more modern, intuitive and engaging.
We then built out the global styles from the design system and set up blocks that could be used as templates across multiple pages. We did this using Elementor, one of WordPress’s most advanced and simple-to-use page builders. This made it much easier for the Specialist Blinds team to update content and layouts themselves.
The existing website lacked strategically placed CTAs, leading to missed conversion opportunities. Users had to search for ways to contact the company, enquire about products, or book consultations. This was frustrating.
To address this, we introduced secondary CTAs on product pages, encouraging users to enquire or book consultations. We also added dual CTAs at the bottom of every page, inviting them to contact Specialist Blinds or book a consultation. By doing this we ensured that CTAs were always visible as users scrolled through the website. This approach significantly increased conversion opportunities by providing straightforward options for users to take action.
The previous website design was outdated, featuring a garish gold gradient on the logo and inconsistent typography. This didn’t align with the company’s luxury brand image and risked alienating their high-end target market.
We first removed the gold gradient from the logomark, opting for a full white logo on images and dark background colours. This created a more timeless and luxurious feel. We introduced a renewed colour palette of beige neutrals, giving the website a warm but minimal aesthetic that felt more upmarket and classy. This also complemented the Specialist Blinds image library.
As well as the digital design system, we also updated the brand’s typography to a serif/sans-serif style. We did this to strike an elegant balance between traditional and modern, appealing to the target audience. Additionally, we used the knot from the logomark as a design feature throughout the website, such as in bullet point marks, to naturally reinforce the brand. This helps to build brand recognition and positive brand equity.
We reviewed Specialist Blinds’ previous website and used heatmaps to analyse user behaviour and journeys. A major issue we identified was misclicks. This is where users click the wrong button and land on unintended pages, negatively affecting conversions. This showed us that users were struggling with poor navigation and unclear CTAs, making it difficult for them to find what they needed or know how to convert.
When users were asked to navigate through the website with the new KIJO design, we saw a 75% reduction in misclicks. Users can now find the information they need and without excessive clicking, and understand the CTAs. This will reduce user friction, encouraging them to stay longer on the website and engage more with it.
By improving navigational ease, Specialist Blinds will undoubtedly see a boost in conversions.
Holyrood
