The new getbevel.com

Design doesn’t start with design. It starts with intent. It starts with a story. It starts with emotion.

“Trust Your First Instinct”

Having been around for a little over 3 years, we decided to take the getbevel.com time machine for a spin; examining archived versions of our website. We then pulled all the market research, feedback, and metrics we had, and put them in a timeline of sorts. It wasn’t perfect as some things have changed (Bevel didn’t have A La Carte at first, for instance) but it was telling.

Here’s what we learned.

getbevel.com has gone through 3 major makeovers.

v1: The launch of getbevel.com

We showed our baby to the world! Design decisions mostly focused on brand story. We didn’t have data to support our decisions, so we relied heavily on intuition.

v2: A redesign to support A La Carte

Yay! You could buy the Bevel products you wanted, one-off. No need to subscribe. As part of this redesign, we really looked at the metrics to drive product decisions.

v3: What you see today

A marriage of its predecessors, with a dash of swag (swag is still a thing right?)

Below you’ll find some (of the many!) things we tried to solve as part of this exercise.

Problem:

Some people are unclear about some very basic things. Namely, what are the Why’s, What’s and How’s of Bevel.

Hypothesis:

People coming to the homepage were immediately clicking on products. Yay! But often, these customers didn’t get a chance to read through our value proposition.

Proposal:

Make it so that no matter where you are on the homepage (above the fold, below the fold, etc.) you get your Why’s, What’s and How’s answered.

Problem:

There is a noticeable disconnect between page designs. Some pages were short form. Some pages were long form. On mobile, even more so. Some pages had little copy. Some really had too much. And for us, content strategy is everything.

Hypothesis:

We became too data driven. The more data we collected, the more tests we ran, the more it drove (rather than informed) product decisions. The “How do we reduce steps and make checkout high speed?” types of ideas became engrained in how we built things.

Proposal:

Take a step back. Identify what story we want our website to tell. In fact, identify what story we want each page to tell. And build from there.

It’s okay if a customer clicks around a nav. They’re curious. We’re interesting. Let them.

A custom, horizontal accordion on desktop, to better accommodate our content strategy

Problem:

Bevel Code & getbevel.com launched as separate entities. This made sense when Bevel was born, but overtime, this resulted in brand confusion.

Hypothesis:

By bringing Bevel Code into into getbevel.com, we could solve a few problems.

• No more brand confusion. There is only one brand, and it’s Bevel.
• We gain additional SEO juice, for free.
• And by housing them together, we build an ecosystem that benefits both customer types. People with the intent to buy, can peruse our articles and learn. Those with the intent to learn, can make the switch to buy.

Proposal:

Bevel Code & Get Advice type articles should not just be isolated to a single area — it should be shown throughout the website. Additionally, have Bevel Code share the same nav and style guide as the rest of the website to foster brand consistency and discoverability.

On the left: Snippet of interesting info on the Homepage | On the right: The newly embedded Bevel Code

Problem:

We’ve been around for several years…but if you came to our website for the first time, this may be lost on you. All those articles written about Bevel, the clinical tests and certified dermatologist support, publications and testimonials — nowhere to be found. This had to change.

Hypothesis:

No news is bad news. The customers who know us, trust us. They love our products. The customers who don’t know us, want to know more about us. We should make it easy for them. Because once they know, they’ll purchase.

Proposal:

Our customers want proof, so let’s give it to them.

Bevel is evolving as a brand. You can find us on the physical shelves of Target, and the digital shelves of Amazon. And with the recent introduction of FORM, we’ll be selling products in even more places. Despite all this, our digital experiences continue leading the way.

And as we say internally…

“Brand is not what we say it is.”

So let us know what you think via pm@walkerandcobrands.com.

And tell others on Facebook and Twitter.

We’re listening.

Thank you ❤

The Product Team at Walker & Co