About
As the head of the websites department at Payscape I led a team of 3 building websites for small business. Payscape is a payment processing company, sold website packages to vendors and businesses they processed payments for. It was my job to come in after a sale was made, acquaint myself with the business, understand the client’s goals, and help them meet their goals with their new website.
Services:
Web Design
Wireframing
UX/UI
Client Interaction
Account Management
Branding
Photography
The Challenge
Since these website packages were sold at small price points, and I was in charge of handling several projects simultaneously, things moved at a quick pace. In addition small businesses are all essentially looking for exposure to create growth, but the way they do that, their audiences, and their products are all very different. My job was to take every client’s unique ideas and make sure we helped them accomplish their goals, all while keeping costs down.
Our Approach
My approach at Payscape was simple: listen more than you speak. At this job I learned more about the design process than designing itself, and that when you have several different projects, with several different asks, and a multitude of deadlines running parallel, the best thing you can do as a designer is have empathy up top.
With every client I worked with I made sure the first thing we did was talk thoroughly about their business, the ins-and-outs of what they do, what their goals were, and how we could work together to solve their problems. After that dialogue was had, the sites seemed to build themselves.
In my time at Payscape I built over 30 websites, here are a few examples.
Rocky Mountain Soccer Camp
RMSC is a soccer camp in Colorado that has been around since 1971. They wanted to showcase their beautiful campgrounds, their exceptional service, and their storied history to increase their summer attendance. They wanted young athletes to get excited about going to RMSC, and wanted to look trustworthy and worth-it to parents. We accomplished this by showing off their grounds with big imagery, keeping copy streamlined, constantly pointing pointing users to RMSC’s credentials, and peppering in CTA’s everywhere that was appropriate to funnel those clicks. After the site was up they experienced a 17% increase in attendance.
Kerri Weems Ministries
Kerri Weems is a pastor, teacher, and speaker at the massive Celebration Church in Jacksonville, FL. She has a live audience of over 700 every week, and thousands more online, at conferences, through her podcasts, and videos. Kerri wanted to grow her online presence, and promote her message through the proliferation of her podcast and books. However she wanted her site to have her welcoming and gentle personality that her followers have come to love. She wanted the site to feel consistent with her tone as a speaker, and something similar to websites her audience of 25+ women are already engaging with. We did this by making sure she was in the forefront of every picture, color was used to ease the user’s navigation, and we presented her work in a thoughtful and accessible manner.
Doghouse Memphis
Doghouse Memphis is a dog grooming, boarding, and daycare service for dog owners in Memphis. They are located in a growing part of a growing city with a huge millennial population. Because of this they wanted a website that resonated with their ideal clientele of young professionals, showcased their services in a friendly way, and created exposure. We accomplished this by keeping their branding bright, clean, and full of rounded edges. The website is colorful, has tons of white space, and is populated with tons of dog pictures to keep things warm, and fun.
Spice for Life
Spice for Life is a small woman-owned spice store in suburban Ohio. They’re in an up-and-coming area where cooking and home life is being valued more and more, and wanted to take advantage of that by having an online store that establishes them as a legitimate business, drives sales, and creates community around their products. We did this by keeping their site fresh, populated with enticing imagery, and structured the website so that their community initiatives and efforts are at the forefront. Since their opening they have stated that their site has been a bigger traffic driver than social media and referrals.