TillerXR, an Austin-based startup, faced challenges in effectively promoting its Virtual Tour Studio software due to usability and branding issues on its website, which failed to reflect the company's evolution and dual business model. The goal was to redesign the website to clearly showcase the software and the turnkey service, improving user experience and coherence in brand identity. My role encompassed conducting user research, designing the user interface, and developing the final website. This involved competitive research, user interviews, and usability testing to guide the redesign process, ultimately enhancing the website's functionality and establishing a stronger brand presence for TillerXR.
TillerXR stumbled upon significant hurdles related to usability and branding on its website. Initially, the old website was designed to showcase their full-service tour creation service; the website no longer aligned with TillerXR’s evolved business model and expanded offerings with their addition to tour creation software. This misalignment led to a diluted brand identity and a confusing user experience, deterring potential customers.
The primary goal was overhauling the website to seamlessly integrate the software and turnkey service offerings, streamlining the user journey. Enhancing the website's usability and coherence in brand identity was paramount to attracting and retaining customer interest. The process was driven by a thorough understanding of competitive landscapes and user expectations, underpinned by perceptual mapping to identify positioning gaps and opportunities.
Users & Audience
TillerXR serves a varied professional user base within the real estate and hospitality sectors, from agents to event planners, all united by their need for innovative virtual tour technology. This group ranges from 25 to 55 years old, seeking to leverage virtual tours for enhanced marketing and engagement. They are innovators and tech enthusiasts looking for reliable, easy-to-integrate tools to produce captivating virtual experiences.
The core needs are user-friendly tools and seamless workflow integration, with a desire for immersive experiences that accurately represent their spaces. Challenges include navigating complex systems, insufficient support, and digital representation limitations.
Key personas exemplify our audience's spectrum:
Insights and Re-design Considerations
Intuitive Navigation and User Interface: Ensure the platform's user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, catering to both tech-savvy users and those with less technical backgrounds. Simplify the process of creating and viewing virtual tours to accommodate users like Nellie and Alex, who prioritize ease of use.
Customizable Tour Options: Incorporate features that allow for high customization of virtual tours. Users like Rick and Abby seek to impress their clientele with unique and personalized virtual experiences, indicating a need for a range of customization tools.
Robust Support and Learning Resources: Provide comprehensive support and educational resources, including tutorials, FAQs, and responsive customer service. This supports users like Nellie, who are keen to learn and overcome the initial learning curve, and Erin, who looks for efficiency in managing projects.
This project was initiated with a feature prioritization for pages and content that would go into the website’s initial launch. To prioritize the features, I worked with key stakeholders using the personas created to help guide the activity. After the features were prioritized, a card sorting activity was conducted to help organize the website's main content, followed by creating a site map to serve as the foundation of the website redesign project. The main goal of this initial development was to organize the content to have a clear plan for developing wireframes.
Takeaways:
It was most important to ensure that the website prioritized both the Virtual Tour Studio software landing page and the Turnkey service. After the initial launch of the website, more in-depth pages could be developed, along with a plan to create a blog.
Wireframes were developed based on site mapping and feature prioritization, with the main goal of showcasing where the different content would be laid out. This process was designed to be iterative, with the aim of getting feedback on the website's structure to iterate it as needed before developing it further into final prototypes.
One of the main ideas for this phase of the project was to ensure a clear hierarchy and to make distinct sections that would break up the design and make it visually interesting. The focus for the wireframing portion of this project was mainly on desktop and the tablet and mobile wireframes should be developed in the near future.
The final designs were developed with the main goal of showing the actual content within the high-fidelity prototype. One of the main goals was to incorporate a dark theme into the website to support the techy theme of this start-up. In addition, the accent color purple was used to help tie in the brand and maintain consistency among the various pages.
Graphics were designed separately for this high-fertility prototype, and several iterations based on feedback were made to reach this final design before website development. These are the essential pages for the website's initial launch.
Next Steps:
The next steps are to test the website given the tasks users would need to complete and ensure that the website is user-friendly and engaging. After testing, the website will be fully developed and implemented for this initial launch, and then immediately after, additional pages, such as a demo library and blog, will start to be prototyped.
TillerXR shifted who they serve with their initiative to create a new software, and this triggered a need for a full brand re-vamp and website redesign.
TillerXR, an Austin-based startup, faced challenges in effectively promoting its Virtual Tour Studio software due to usability and branding issues on its website, which failed to reflect the company's evolution and dual business model. The goal was to redesign the website to clearly showcase the software and the turnkey service, improving user experience and coherence in brand identity. My role encompassed conducting user research, designing the user interface, and developing the final website. This involved competitive research, user interviews, and usability testing to guide the redesign process, ultimately enhancing the website's functionality and establishing a stronger brand presence for TillerXR.
TillerXR stumbled upon significant hurdles related to usability and branding on its website. Initially, the old website was designed to showcase their full-service tour creation service; the website no longer aligned with TillerXR’s evolved business model and expanded offerings with their addition to tour creation software. This misalignment led to a diluted brand identity and a confusing user experience, deterring potential customers.
The primary goal was overhauling the website to seamlessly integrate the software and turnkey service offerings, streamlining the user journey. Enhancing the website's usability and coherence in brand identity was paramount to attracting and retaining customer interest. The process was driven by a thorough understanding of competitive landscapes and user expectations, underpinned by perceptual mapping to identify positioning gaps and opportunities.
TillerXR serves a varied professional user base within the real estate and hospitality sectors, from agents to event planners, all united by their need for innovative virtual tour technology. This group ranges from 25 to 55 years old, seeking to leverage virtual tours for enhanced marketing and engagement. They are innovators and tech enthusiasts looking for reliable, easy-to-integrate tools to produce captivating virtual experiences.
The core needs are user-friendly tools and seamless workflow integration, with a desire for immersive experiences that accurately represent their spaces. Challenges include navigating complex systems, insufficient support, and digital representation limitations.
Key personas exemplify our audience's spectrum:
This project was initiated with a feature prioritization for pages and content that would go into the website’s initial launch. To prioritize the features, I worked with key stakeholders using the personas created to help guide the activity. After the features were prioritized, a card sorting activity was conducted to help organize the website's main content, followed by creating a site map to serve as the foundation of the website redesign project. The main goal of this initial development was to organize the content to have a clear plan for developing wireframes.
With the the stakeholders we collaborated to prioritize pages to be created for the website redesign. I used MoSCoW analysis to help sort out what pages we must have, should have, and could have:
It was most important to ensure that the website prioritized both the Virtual Tour Studio software landing page and the Turnkey service. After the initial launch of the website, more in-depth pages could be developed, along with a plan to create a blog.
Wireframes were developed based on site mapping and feature prioritization, with the main goal of showcasing where the different content would be laid out. This process was designed to be iterative, with the aim of getting feedback on the website's structure to iterate it as needed before developing it further into final prototypes.
One of the main ideas for this phase of the project was to ensure a clear hierarchy and to make distinct sections that would break up the design and make it visually interesting. The focus for the wireframing portion of this project was mainly on desktop and the tablet and mobile wireframes should be developed in the near future.
The final designs were developed with the main goal of showing the actual content within the high-fidelity prototype. One of the main goals was to incorporate a dark theme into the website to support the techy theme of this start-up. In addition, the accent color purple was used to help tie in the brand and maintain consistency among the various pages.
Graphics were designed separately for this high-fertility prototype, and several iterations based on feedback were made to reach this final design before website development. These are the essential pages for the website's initial launch.
The TillerXR Website Redesign and branding project was met with excitement from users and stakeholders. The website was then fully developed and implemented into Webflow.
The next steps are to test the website given the tasks users would need to complete and ensure that the website is user-friendly and engaging. After testing, the website will be fully developed and implemented for this initial launch, and then immediately after, additional pages, such as a demo library and blog, will start to be prototyped.
