A Visual-First Redesign of a Product Marketing Site

Project details

→ Role: Product Designer
→ Tools: Figma
→ Scope: Full homepage redesign, new contact page and referral page
→ Client ask: Make the website more visual, engaging, and targeted to junior UX designers

While the project hasn’t gone public, designs were created with scalability and developer handoff in mind.

Background

The founder of a full-service design agency, asked me to redesign the marketing site for their new apprenticeship program, DesignXP, built to help junior UX designers gain real-world experience.

The client didn’t like that the original designs were text-heavy and lacked visual elements, but they did not want to make any major changes to the copy.

So what’s my goal?
To make the site intuitive, credible, and visually compelling while keeping the copy.

Understanding the user

As an early-career designer myself, I didn’t want to let my biases color the product outcomes. So, I took a step back and conducted informal research to better understand our userbase of junior UX designers. Time and budget constraints made formal user research unfeasible.

What are users saying?

I conducted informal interviews to validate user pain points and ensure alignment with real experience.

Key finding 1: Aspiring UX Designers struggle to gain experience beyond current training programs, while hiring managers emphasize real-world collaboration skills.

This suggested that the site needs to emphasize the takeaways of the apprenticeship program, such as real-world experience, so that it provides a direct solution to their pain point.

So, how do I highlight the takeaways?

I wanted to emphasize terminology commonly used by job-seekers and hiring professionals. This way, the messaging for the apprenticeship program will feel familiar, credible, and directly relevant to the audience.

So, I analyzed job posts and industry language on LinkedIn to align copy with industry language and improve product discoverability.

When auditing entry-level job postings, I found that there were 3 common skills that employers look for, which weren’t being used in our current designs:

1. Business and product thinking
2. Problem-solving
3. Collaboration and teamwork

This presented an opportunity to communicate the apprenticeship’s takeaways, so altogether, my informal research informed the visual tone and information architecture of my redesign.

My design approach

Since the client wanted to keep the copy, I incorporated visual storytelling to present the information in a more engaging manner.

The Features and Pricing section went through the most changes:

Original design for the Program Features section

My redesign for the Program Features section
(Press the image for annotations!)

Changes made: Since this section was heavy on text, I made the following changes to meet the client’s ask for a more visual compelling site:

1. Reordered information architecture to emphasize program takeaways, based off the 3 phrases I found in my user research
2. Created custom illustrations and added iconography for visual cues

Original design for the Pricing section

My redesign for the Pricing section
(Press the image for annotations!)

Changes made: The original design made it difficult to compare offerings between the two plans, so I introduced a tiered comparison chart to improve scannability of the details.

This emphasizes what users gain from the apprenticeship and nudges users towards conversion.

Iterating on client feedback

The client responded positively to my first iteration, especially how I used visual storytelling in the Features section.

Slack messages from the client

Only the “How It Works” section required more iteration.

I had originally proposed a footsteps animation, but due to timeline and budgetary constraints, we opted for a simpler, static version and injected the primary brand color into bold icons.

Original design of the “How it Works” section by the client

My first iteration, where I created graphics for a playful touch and to appeal to designers, and added a CTA for increased conversion

My second iteration, where I removed the footsteps due to project constraints, and added iconography

Evolving the scope

Impressed by the initial outcomes, the client asked me to expand the project by designing several new sections:

• A FAQ section in the Landing Page
• A Contact Page for applicants
• A Referrals Page, where users can skip the waitlist by referring others

Throughout, I maintained consistent design patterns and accessible color contrast for easy implementation and responsiveness.

Keeping scalability in mind, I made components for the FAQ section while offering the client sample questions that can reduce bounce rates.

Contact pages designed to convert interest into action. Users can apply directly or schedule a call, with social proof and a Calendly integration for a seamless experience.

The Referrals page drives growth and community engagement by rewarding referrals and inviting users into a branded Slack space.

Reflection

I learned a lot from this project!

• Client collaboration: I got to practice managing feedback, aligning design with technical constraints, and staying flexible.
• Graphic storytelling: This project required visual information architecture, so I was able to focus on structuring information to reflect user needs.
• Design systems thinking: Even in a lean build, I thought ahead and created reusable components to scale.

While the project has yet to go live, the design is dev-ready and positioned for easy rollout. I’m proud of the personality and structure I brought to a young company finding its footing.

What’s Next

I’m excited to continue this partnership with a scaling design agency as this project matures, as it reminded me how much impact small, intentional design choices can make. I hope to keep refining my visual design and research skills for thoughtful user experiences.