Walvis has evolved and grown a lot over the past year. We decided it would be a good time for our brand to reflect these changes, specifically in the form of our digital presence. Typically it is advised that websites go through a redesign every three to four years, however, we felt that we had outgrown our old website and we wanted to improve. During our website redesign, we decided to focus on three main features: content, usability, and design.
Our knowledge and the content we present is the heart of our business. As experts in our field, we want our knowledgeable content to be easily accessible by all users. We actioned this by identifying our tone of voice and choosing what information would be available on our website. We then rewrote all of our copy to reflect the changes. For example, we are very proud of the process and approach that we take to our work. The addition of a logical process page that clearly defined our steps and the reasoning behind those actions was important as potential clients can see how projects will be managed. Also, the written copy and layout demonstrated the consistent tone of voice that we wanted to present throughout.
Cohesiveness was a significant factor when planning and discussing the website redesign. Along with our tone of voice, we wanted to provide consistency to our identity and communicate our brand values. As Walvis Technologies provides a variety of services (consultancy, design, and development), our brand must remain clear and consistent. This was executed through our colour palette, our chosen typography, and our logo. Our colour palette was specifically chosen as it is not only consistent with our brand colours but also uses colours that are connotative of loyalty and trust. We pride ourselves on being a trustworthy Canadian-based company and wanted to consistently communicate this.
While legibility was a primary decision maker when picking our typography we also took into consideration how the typefaces can be perceived. We decided to use Raleway for our headings. This sans-serif typeface is minimalistic, its sharp and functional features also add an element of attitude to our content. For our body text, we chose to use Montserrat. Monsterrat is similarly modern but like Raleway, demonstrates more character than some more similar typefaces.
You may notice the particular style of graphics that we used throughout or website. We chose to use flat illustrations as flat design not only supports our website's needs but also conveyed a consistent appearance. We are very aware that half of our users access our website through mobile devices so we chose flat design as it is easily adapted to responsive websites. Additionally, flat design is well known for its effective legibility on multiple screens and its minimalistic style can convey messages quickly. Our chosen simplistic illustrations allow us to communicate clearly and add value without diverting away from the key information within the content.
In our Ultimate Guide to Web Design, we mention how a well-designed website can fall flat if usability is not taken seriously. Poor usability can turn users away so we wanted to make sure that users immediately felt that the website was easy to understand and had a welcoming feel to it. We achieved this with a consistent layout and a well-structured site-map. As one of our main goals is to present knowledgeable content, we needed our content to be easily found and that relied upon predictable navigational features. Through usability testing, we ensured that our users could access the pages without getting lost or encountering broken links along the way.
Our new look embodies the values of Walvis Technologies and demonstrates our best qualities. We hope you enjoy the redesign!
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