How do I design an About Us page?
Every time you visit a website, you want to understand better the product, service, or institution you’re seeing, and if you're curious (which I’m pretty sure you are) maybe to know the people involved, what, and how they’re doing it. So, this is the most crucial and funniest page to showcase… And to me to design!
This time, I had the opportunity to design the About Us of Trödel Spende, the secondhand marketplace where the money goes to an NGO. And it made total sense to create it since the UX Research results (and if you haven’t read my previous case study about it, I invite you to by clicking here) told us users needed to perceive reliability to encourage them to upload or purchase an item, so the About Us page is the perfect opportunity to build trust in the brand.
Stakeholder: Trödel Spende | Timeline: 4 days | Tools: Figma & Procreate
The Process
UX Audit
To start with, I checked the website to know what was the page status.
In this case, even if Trödel Spende had a useful and basic explanation (this is good to start for a startup), the visual design was not exactly appealing, so it was almost like a blank canvas that I can easily work!
Competitor Analysis
Part of my process is always to look at the market and see what other similar companies are doing to discern the right path to take. Specifically, in this case, I compare the businesses' descriptions, sections, and how they present and place them, such as their visual branding.
Secondary UX Research
Since I have a background in Marketing, to me, it was important not only to show the indispensable but to reflect the company’s essence by following the branding guidelines to create an engaging page. So, I started my secondary research and I found exactly what I needed:
If you want to know in detail, I share with you the video:
Info provided by stakeholders
During my time working at Trödel Spende, I had enough material to start: presentations, ideas from workshops (for example Social Media copies, slogans, and everything needed to build a brand). Still, you always have to involve your stakeholder, to create something, and even more if you’re designing the About us since is about them!
Let’s sketch some wireframes!
I started creating my LoFi wireframes (I use Procreate for iPad, but I know FigmaJam is a great tool for sketches too) and to me, Figma is a great tool to document and have everything just on file. So I leave notes describing my decisions and goals. This is also useful, in case other people who are involved take a look at my design proposals and want to leave their notes.
Just to put you in context, in this case, I was working along with the other 2 designers, each had their projects but we meet each other to validate assumptions, brainstorm, and share other perspectives. If you’re starting on design, you must know that the more you talk with designers, the more you learn. If you’re a solo designer, don’t let the syndrome impostor follows you, what can help you is to look for a mentor, you can find them on ADPList.
Polishing in a draft…
Once I got valuable feedback from stakeholders and UX Team, I continued inspiring myself from other companies websites. I noticed some of them included not only Press but also Events participation; at that time Trödel Spende was starting to be invited to some, so I thought it would be good to think about adding it, even if it was too early. The same happened when I thought about inserting a section on career offers. We were only 10 people, but we were sure the team will grow, and for that, I wanted to be prepared.
So I iterate and create the MidFi wireframes on Figma. Since I didn’t have the visual content, I used normally some doodles to bring life to my designs, making it more real and easier to understand for others what I want to project. What do you think about this idea?
You can take a look at the prototype in MidFi here:
Time to try some colors!
This was the perfect opportunity to reflect the brand personality, in this case, Trödel Spende is like the “common person”, always friendly, humble, and willing to help.
So, once it was decided which sections and content were going to be displayed, I decided to bring some colors to make a difference between them, plus looking for pictures that communicate inclusion, diversity, and how the regular user looks like using the website. The written content was created by a professional in Public Relations.
There were some changes, specifically in the values, and the milestone was decided to be implemented in the future this consulting has along with developers. The events calendar and Press will be implemented as another page so that users don’t have to scroll down for so long.
I managed to do a focus group as a workshop with the whole team including marketing, developers, designers, and stakeholders and in these cases, I managed to do some color changes to do it more accessible to the eye.
Final result
Here you can see how was the final design, and please let me know what you think!
What did I learn…?
- Sometimes less is more, and this case study was an example of that.
- Iterate during the whole process, and don’t forget to document everything, even if it is with real sticky notes or digital ones.
- Always have good communication with your stakeholder and try to include your colleagues since they're part of the brand essence
- Often and clear communication with the developers, you help each other to build a product and in my case a brand
- User experience is to think about how you would like the user to feel using your product and in this case, how your brand has to be reflected
- Trust in your decisions! Of course, you need to listen to the stakeholders and the users, but you decide what suggestions and opinions are good for your design because you’re the person who knows better your project and shows Haceit proving it with your validation.
- Never forget about having fun while you’re creative!
Thanks to read me!
If you want to know more about me and my work, just take a look at my Portfolio website, or if you want to share your opinion, suggestions, or just this UX passion, please send me a message through Medium, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
