Immigration Consultancy Website
Website redesign for a Licensed Immigration Consultancy Company. It introduces the company’s adviser and their services to people wanting to visit or live in New Zealand.
Presenting an immigration adviser’s services and credentials clearly to New Zealand visitors and immigrants so they can choose their Licensed Immigration Adviser with more confidence.
WHAT IS KORU?
Koru is a Licensed Immigration Consultancy Company based in Manila, Philippines.
Koru provides transparent and reliable immigration advice for people looking to visit and live in New Zealand.
KEY GOAL
To set Koru apart from the other licensed immigration advisers by presenting a more professional look and to encourage more users to book a consultation.
MY ROLES
UX Design, Web Design and Build
I was the sole designer in this project.
PROBLEM
After interviews with several potential and successful immigrants, we found that their primary need is to know the how’s of going to New Zealand. Their main pain point is not knowing where to begin their search.
There is an over abundance of information on the Internet. However, not all of them are reliable. Some are anecdotal and most are outdated.
Choosing a trustworthy immigration consultant is like walking through a mine field, as illegal agencies and unqualified advisers are aggressive in marketing.
As such, we identified four goals in this project:
To establish the immigration adviser’s competence
To promote trust with potential clients (users)
To guide the users through the first phase of their immigration research
To encourage users to book a consultation
USER PERSONAS
The personas were based on Koru’s previous clients as well as interviewees that were the had the same motivations and demographics as the previous clients.
We chose 3 main segments as the target audience.
SITEMAPPING
Keeping the users’ pain points in mind, we reviewed the original site and saw that it had vague menu/categories that did not always relate to the users. We looked at where we could pare down text and eliminate unnecessary sections.
Information was re-organised. Topics that were usually searched for were made front and centre.
These were done so that the users were presented just enough information to guide, but not overwhelm them during their initial research.
The old homepage
Sitemap for the new website
WIREFRAMING
I then sketched out possible layouts for the sections we were going to retain and add.
Designs were developed from chosen wireframes and initial content from the client.
Interactive enough to be engaging, yet not too tedious to browse. The website was intended to be an invitation to contact the LIA, rather than to be a resource on the immigration process. So clear, concise text was accompanied by beautiful imagery and graphics.
DESIGN
Chosen wireframes were then translated to mocks for approval.
Animations were added to ease the user into the rest of the content, as a lot of text displayed all at once would be overwhelming
The copy was also rewritten so that the statements would resonate with the users’ sentiments.
WEB DEVELOPMENT
I designed the website with adaptive elements and interactions that would display in all types of devices.
I chose to build the website on Webflow as it offered the most flexibility in design and accommodated most of the functionalities that the site required.
The new homepage
LESSONS
I realised that although most users will view the website using a laptop or desktop during their research, first point of contact (such as after a referral) will still be through mobile devices.
During testing, I found that users missed crucial information because they just scroll through the mobile site.
I needed to redesign some of the interactions in mobile so that the user won’t accidentally gloss over important information.
Original design for the Services section. Info on Service item would pop up when the box or icon is clicked. I eventually redesigned this section to make it less tedious to view.
OUTCOMES
As of this writing, the client had an increase of 12.5% in the number of enquiries through the website.
Of those enquiries, 18% eventually signed up to be Koru clients.
Within just five months, the number of consultations booked surpassed the bookings from the previous eight months.
It suggests that the website may have encouraged users to book the consultations.
In this regard, we can say that the website redesign was a success.