VertX Enterprise Solutions is an IT consulting firm that combines modernization, analytics, and management services to support both public and private sector organizations—leveraging specialized teams to drive enterprise-level digital transformation.
Challenge
VertX’s original website was clean, informative, and concise, but lacked the depth needed to showcase its certified capabilities and success stories in a competitive market.
I led the transformation of the site from a simple single-page format into a fully expanded multi-page website, creating a stronger information architecture to highlight VertX’s value and differentiation. Alongside the content expansion, I assisted in refining their branding and visual style, laying the groundwork for a more modern design system that can evolve with future iterations.
Role: UX Researcher & UX Designer on a team of three
Scope: ~ 3 months March-May 2020
Tools: Adobe XD + Adobe InDesign
Design Process
Research
Conducted competitive analysis and user interviews to understand industry positioning, audience needs, and opportunities for differentiation. Developed user personas to capture audience goals and guide design decisions.
Define + Develop
Built a site map to establish a clear information hierarchy and content structure. Created low-fidelity wireframes to explore layout options, then progressed to mid- and high-fidelity wireframes. Iterated through user testing to validate usability, refine branding, and align with modern design standards.
Refinement + Delivery
Implemented the redesigned website on a modern technical framework, expanding it from a single-page to a multi-page experience. Leveraged usability testing insights to refine wireframes and integrate new UI patterns that directly addressed identified pain points. Optimized the final build for accessibility, responsiveness, and scalability to support future growth.
Project Goals
Expand and restructure the information hierarchy to highlight VertX’s certified capabilities and success stories in a more compelling, differentiated way.
Enhance visual branding and theming to reflect modern design standards while complementing the expanded content and strengthening brand identity.
Develop and extend UI components to enable intuitive navigation and create clear connections between related content across pages, improving overall usability and content discovery.
Competitive Analysis
We conducted a competitive analysis to gain a better understanding of Vertx’s current position in the market and how we can improve their visibility. We identified six competitors to learn about the content types and features that make a site stand out.
Based on our analysis, we’ve identified these key takeaways:
Highlight contracts and certifications
Provide key examples of success stories in relation to listed capabilities
User Interviews
Our team conducted 30 minute session interviews with 6 current users of the website that fall within our identified personas: employees, clients, and partners. We formed our interview protocol to include questions around what is currently working well for the site, expectations on features, expectations on informational blocks, and what makes VertX unique from its competitors.
Takeaways:
Frustrations in lack of ability to find specific informational components
For each of the identified personas, based on their goals, they searched for different informational components that heavily influenced their perspective of the company. The lack of or inability to locate information negatively impacts that perception.
Difficulty in distinguishing VertX from competitors
The current one-page site is not effective in allowing users to quickly and easily identify VertX or how they compare to other competitors.
Users utilize the site to enhance their understanding of the company
Websites are used as a resource for users to become knowledgable about the company and as a decision point on how they would like to proceed with the company.
Personas
Employee – Seeks to understand how their skills align with VertX’s projects and the variety of work the company delivers.
Client – Looks for clarity on VertX’s service offerings and how those solutions have been successfully applied in real-world scenarios.
Partner – Wants easy access to VertX’s capabilities and certifications to evaluate opportunities for collaboration or future business ventures.
Site Map
The primary objective was to evolve VertX’s website from a single-page format into a structured multi-page experience. This required more than simply adding content—it meant redefining the information architecture to ensure content was logically grouped, pages were clearly and intuitively named, and cross-page relationships were thoughtfully mapped. By considering the distinct navigation patterns of different user types, we established a framework that not only improved content discoverability but also created a more seamless and purposeful user journey throughout the site.
Visual Branding
Our team refined and expanded VertX’s existing brand guidelines to create a more cohesive visual system that differentiates the company within a competitive market. The updated guidelines established clear direction for UI elements, including the treatment of color, typography, and spacing, to reinforce hierarchy and consistency across pages. We also introduced standards for visual cues—such as motion, page transitions, and tracking indicators—to improve orientation and wayfinding, ensuring users could easily understand where they are within the site and how to navigate related content. These enhancements not only elevated brand distinction but also strengthened the overall user experience.
Positioning
VertX’s three core brand values:
Modern – Up-to-date on the latest technologies and best practices. Not stale!
Harmonized – Holistic in approach, knowledge of downstream impacts. A real partner!
Agile – Focused on continuous improvement and achievable business value. Quick to adapt!
Low —> Mid-Fidelity Mockup
Using the site map as a foundation, we translated the content structure into low-fidelity wireframes that allowed us to define core UI patterns and establish a consistent component library aligned with the needs of each page. This early framework ensured that the design system was both scalable and adaptable as content evolved. Once the UI library was defined—incorporating elements such as banners, 50/50 image-text splits, cards, iconography paired with copy, and column-based layouts—we began applying the updated brand guidelines to develop the initial visual treatment. This step created a strong alignment between content, design, and branding while laying the groundwork for a cohesive and intuitive user experience.
Usability Testing
To validate the direction of our mid-fidelity designs, we conducted usability testing with the same participants from our initial interviews. This continuity allowed us to directly test design decisions against the needs and expectations we had mapped to each persona type. Through structured task scenarios, we assessed whether the proposed wireframes supported intuitive navigation, content discoverability, and alignment with user goals.
Our research goals include that:
All personas are able to easily navigate the new site
All personas are able to find content relevant to them
UI features are logical, allows users to stay engaged, and assist in navigation
The outcomes of our usability testing directly informed new design decisions, guiding refinements to our navigation model, content interlinking, and page-level UI to ensure the final solution more effectively addressed user needs.
The Solution
Clarity of navigation – Users confirmed that the top-level navigation provided a clear, high-level understanding of the site’s structure and what content could be expected on each page.
Cross-linking expectations – Users anticipated additional routes to related content, such as being able to navigate seamlessly from success stories to capabilities, reinforcing the importance of contextual pathways between pages.
Support for long-form content – Users expressed the need for secondary navigation aids (e.g., sticky menus, anchor links, or jump-to sections) to more easily traverse longer-form pages, given their previous experience of scrolling through a single-page site.
Emphasis on decision-driving content – Users highlighted the importance of having clear visual emphasis on key content pieces—such as certifications, capabilities, or success stories—that directly support their decision-making processes based on persona-specific needs.
High-Fidelity Mockups
Once the designs were finalized through usability testing and client feedback, we produced detailed annotated screens to guide development with clarity and precision. Throughout the build, we conducted ongoing QA to verify that the implemented site structure accurately reflected the approved site map and that all design system elements were applied consistently across pages. This ensured both fidelity to the intended user experience and long-term maintainability of the design system.
