Maguire Hayden
Maguire Hayden Real Estate Company is a fully integrated commercial real estate investment and operating firm that primarily acquires, repositions and manages office, industrial and flex properties in the Mid-Atlantic region.
MAJOR ROLES:
WEB DESIGN, UX/UI
DATE:
DECEMBER 2018
EMPLOYER:
MUHLENHAUPT
Background
Maguire Hayden is a successful family owned business that has made a substantial mark all over Pennsylvania. Recently, the business progressed its way to the next generation of Hayden entrepreneurs which meant it was in need of a total re-brand. They wanted to begin with a full re-design of the website to enhance usability and create a more modern look and feel for their clients that showcased the vibrant imagery of their properties.
Challenge
The Hayden name has become well-known in the real estate community, and while they asked for a drastically different look and feel, my job as the lead designer on the project was to ensure there was a balance between the legacy brand and the new and updated look the client hoped to achieve.
Before diving into the design, I performed a thorough information architecture review identifying the gaps in the user experience. I began by looking at the analytics and continued on to create a sitemap of the legacy website, where I identified key opportunities.
-
- All the light grey boxes represent separate pages in a drop down menu which becomes confusing and hard to navigate.
- The grey boxes with red circles located in the footer section were repeated pages with different names, which was confusing when looking at current user journeys.
In order to close inconsistency gaps on the site, I recommended reducing the amount of pages. The dark grey boxes now represent page sections, rather than individual pages. In addition, the footer section was also simplified to match the same names used throughout the website.
Process
Once I determined the gaps within the architecture, I was able to outline design opportunities. I conducted interviews with the client to determine who their competitors were as well as brands they were inspired by. From there I was able to perform a thorough competitor analysis and find key weaknesses and strengths in the current design that Hayden could execute on. Due to time restraints and client budget, I sketched the ideal structure of the page, and dove straight into creating high-fidelity wireframes.
HAYDEN LEGACY WEBSITE
NEW WEBSITE DESIGN
