Pravada Floors is a metro Vancouver-based flooring manufacturing company. The company is known for its hardwood floors. In 2018, while I worked for them as their sole in-house graphic designer, we began the process of redesigning Pravada's website - a project that took nearly 2 years to launch, introducing me to User Interface design and highly contributing to my growth as a UI designer.
1. To design an easy to navigate website with distinguished user flows for dealers, designers and homeowners.
2. To direct customers to authorized retailers, and make it clear that their e-commerce sells samples only.
3. High-end positioning - To establish the manufacturer as the maker of high-end, quality products, through content that instilled trust and favoured influential partnerships.
Pravada’s website has three types of users (dealers, designers and homeowners). The predominant question we were dealing with was: "How do we direct each type of customer to relevant content for them quickly and efficiently so that we can earn their trust?"
The biggest challenge was how complex and content heavy their website is given all the information that had to be provided in order to clarify the questions regarding these high-ticket products and create trust in order to turn them into sales. A special attention had to be given to information architecture to orient these three different clients in the navigation of their website - ensuring that they were all informed according to their particular needs.
Based on the learnings from the company’s previous website stats (based on data provided by analytics), and competitor analysis, we decided to use a combination of design (colour palette, typography, imagery), social proof (testimonials, third party-featured logos), and content (for product “transparency”). The goal was to position the manufacturer’s brands as high-end and build trust with their customers. Other strategies included categorized menus and careful labelling of e-commerce products (samples) to ensure clarity.
Pravada's website design process started with its information architecture. Top navigation, menus and footer were the main targets given our goal to ensure clear navigation to all their three types of clients. Menus were organized by related themes. Considering the amount of information/pages they link to, we designed each menu to look different so that users could re-engage each time and have a better chance at finding the information they were looking for. When it comes to content, the design focused on providing quick product information for users that tend to revisit the website often looking for specific information (dealers and designers). For other users (homeowners), we focused on providing extra information as we learned that they would take months researching these products prior to making a purchasing decision.
Pravada’s website design has proven to be effective as the company was able to build upon it over the years since its launch in 2020. The website was an integral component of the company’s growth and recognition in the interior design industry led by influencing homeowners and designers - a result of the trust we were able to create through the design’s approach to embedded transparency, open access to product knowledge and, of course, the delivery of quality products. For me as a designer, the project was responsible for immense growth in the user interface, graphic design and copywriting fields. It pushed me to study and apply what I learned quickly in order to meet the demands of the project during those 2 years working on it. It also helped me learn to outsource help and work with third party service providers to execute on the project. The company’s success is the result of a collaborative, patient approach to growth and I’m proud to have left a positive mark in their journey.
