BEGA Website Redesign
OVERVIEW
BEGA is a third generation family – held company that holds a top spot in fine architectural lighting solutions. Founded in 1949, BEGA has grown globally over the years while converting a number of European designs to modern day U.S. standards. They abide by an “innovate, not follow.” approach to design and remain quality conscious. BEGA is now a multi-million dollar corporation and continues to grow as they change the architectural world one illumination at a time.
awards
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
+672%
Sessions+120%
Pages per session+168%
Avg. session duration-42%
Bounce rate+10,098%
Organic search trafficBEGA's website lacked the innovation of their products, was outdated and confusing to navigate.
DISCOVERY
While evaluating BEGA’s previous website, it was apparent that the site was not a fair representation of the cutting edge products BEGA had to offer.
We found that despite their rapid growth in popularity for being a revolutionist in the industry of fine architectural lighting, BEGA’s site design was described as outdated, boring, and unengaging.
The site was not user friendly, the navigation was confusing, and the design had previously been built on a small and retired grid structure, which played a key role in making the site looked outdated. This content was also extremely difficult for them to update in the CMS without breaking something on the front end of the site.
To update the visual appeal of the site, we focused our redesign on adding color, versus its previous monochromatic color scheme of black and white. We also simplified the site navigation and made it easier for site admins to make updates through the CMS.
before
UX STRATEGY
The information gathered during our discovery drove us to our User Experience strategy phase.
We knew the most important aspect was to identify who the users are and then set a top goal: structure the site navigation in a way that would be intuitive for visitors to be able to find the information they’re looking for with minimal clicks.
Since the site is mainly informational and serves to drive people at the top of the sales funnel deeper into the funnel, we knew browsing would be one of the top reasons people came to the site. We introduced a main CTA across the site driving people to the projects section where they could look at stunning photos of BEGA products in action in order to inspire them for their project.
For power users of the site, we implemented a search feature that allows users to type in a part number and be taken directly to the detail page for that product, providing quick access for users who mainly come to the site to grab documentation on products.
A different type of user may be looking for a particular type of light, and so we simplified the navigation structure to make it very easy to visually browse categories and products to see what is offered.
BUILD
Our approach during the design phase was to craft a fully functional, yet simplistic website that caters to each of its users while also remaining engaging.
We wanted to demonstrate BEGA’s ingenuity with an equally innovative site that reinstates the dominance BEGA has in the architectural lighting industry, all while simply and directly presenting the visitor with what they’re looking for.
The client had a very strong brand identity, which we seamlessly implemented into their web presence. We strove to refresh the previously out-of-date site with a clean, modern, and minimalistic look through increased imagery and a crafted flat, brutalist style layout for a fresh and engaging look.
Our development team used best practices for developing the site on a custom .NET responsive framework. The product structure was unique from a typical product catalog site, which introduced a fun challenge into the architecture. The hierarchy contained several additional levels not commonly found: Category > Group > SubGroup > Product Family > SubFamily > Product, which required custom coding to accomplish.
We developed a custom scrolling functionality on the product family page so that the image was sticky while the list of products scrolled beside it. A sales portal was also integrated for their partners that is only available to logged in users to access order information.
TEST & LAUNCH
After crafting the perfect website for BEGA, we triple checked it from front end to back end.
We tested the website on popular devices and browsers to ensure proper functionality and efficiency. We carefully combed through the site for any necessary last minute changes needed to create the perfect experience for BEGA and their visitors.
Once our team was confident that the site was nothing less than exceptional, we sent our work over to the BEGA’s team so they could test it out themselves.
With a launch plan in place, we did another round of testing after going live. While working diligently and communicating thoroughly, we created an exciting and stress free launch day for BEGA.