Humphrey Automation is a leading provider of automation, pneumatic solutions, electrical motion, and machine vision systems in Canada.

I worked closely with the general manager at Humphrey Automation to strategize, plan and implement the full redesign and rebuild of their marketing site.

Before starting on the website redesign, I asked the client what the main problems of the existing site were so we know what to prioritize in the new version. These were the main problems they were facing:

Lack of customer trust

Outdated look - they didn’t look premium/big/innovative enough

Customers were unable to shop online from them

Customers can’t find the right information - staff was wasting time answering questions that could be answered on the website

Website was hard to maintain (lack of intuitive CMS or page builder tool)

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1) Enhance website UX to boost sales. 2) Establish tech authority, highlighting expertise. Also, promote premium services: customized solutions, design capabilities, and product design.

Audience characteristics: 

Age: 30 - 65

Gender: 95% male

Location: Canada

Profession: Design engineer, mechanical engineer, product engineer, automation technician

Level of education: Bachelors+

Main purchasing values/motivators (speed, price, quality, friendly customer service, etc.): Distributors: Price, speed, customer service, Design engineers: Quality, price, customer service

Main purchasing deterrents/fears: Lack of trust, not enough information that this is really the right solution for them

Other related products in the industry they might purchase or look at: Festo, SMC, Parker

I researched the competitive landscape extensively to make sure Humphrey Automation's new website will have a good balance of standing out while meeting familiar industry standards.

Direct Competitors: Wainbee ,Proax , BDIExpress ,Shelley ,DJ Industrial.

Overall, most of these competitors had outdated and unintuitive websites, which was also a big opportunity for Humphrey Automation to fill the gap.

I also researched a few indirect competitors - manufacturers and vendors' websites who were successful players in the industry for inspiration: Vention , Festo , Inspekto.

I worked with the client to define what direction he was envisioning for the website's look & feel. The notes he gave me were:

Keep the existing branded red as the primary colour

Clean - not too much colour, lots of white

Lots of images - take inspiration from Festo + Inspekto

I took his input, conducted research from various design inspiration sites and consolidated everything to create a mood board that would guide the branding and web design:

I took the current company branding (the red colour), and created a new palette around it, with some secondary and neutral colours. I then added updated fonts and imagery to create a style guide for ease of use in designing the new website.

I took all of the research and the outlined goals to create a new website architecture.

For the website, I opted for Wordpress and Elementor for ease of use and familiarity. Astra theme was chosen for compatibility, flexibility, and support.

Next, I crafted mockups for key pages, like the homepage and custom solutions, using Figma. Emphasis was on strategic use of imagery, colors, and white space, complemented by enhanced client copy. Clear calls-to-action (primary: shop, secondary: contact) were integrated. After client approval, remaining pages were built with Elementor, maintaining design consistency.

Finally, it was time to bring the pages to life and start building on Elementor. Many of the original designs went through a few rounds of iterations based on client requests (mainly new information blocks that were important to be added). I used custom CSS whenever I ran into issues where the theme was limited, to match the original design styles. I worked together with the client to fill in the information and content for both the standalone pages and for each of the template pages.

Overall, the process of planning, strategizing, designing and building the new Humphrey Automation website was a great experience. The client was left with a new and improved website, designed with their goals in mind - establish trust with customers, convey expertise and promote their products and services. The polished brand styles and well-organized site structure further helped to advance those goals.

While a few challenges did arise, such as having to quickly iterate on the designs ad-hoc or figure out technical workarounds within the page builder, I learned to overcome them, adapt and communicate efficiently.