Building Doorman.co
Doorman strives to fix the last-mile problem for the ever expanding ecommerce space. From the Doorman app fixing users’ issues of broken deliveries to the full platform Doorman API allowing retailers to improve their own delivery and fulfillment experiences, the website is the important front door to the Doorman world.
While leading design at Doorman, the website was the most liquid, ever-changing project at the company. It combined the complexities of explaining not only a novel app, but a unique delivery process to both consumers and enterprise customers. By challenging ourselves to explain with clarity each of Doorman's products, the Doorman website successfully acheived high conversion for both B2C and B2B visitors.
Wireframe Structure
Designing a website starts with proper structure and priorities.
High Fidelity Mockup
High fidelity mockups allow me to communicate to the rest of the team about what users will actually experience—this turns the “show like a modern looking checkout here dude so they can see how easy it is” into something real, concrete, and clear.
Efficient Design with Reusable Blocks
Keeping in mind valuable engineering resources, I needed to create designs efficiently that would convey information for a number of different solutions. Using large hero blocks with customizable informational components allowed for this flexibility.
Unique Use Cases
As a small startup still finding the best case studies, it was important to clearly explain actual use cases for each of Doorman’s solutions.
Reinforcing Graphics
While important for SEO, lots of copy doesn’t get read. We all know this. These assets aim to convey powerful concepts with appropriate positive emotions.
Trade-offs
While using images was inconsistent with custom graphical assets, keeping individual sections consistent acted as an important compromise when resources are spread thin at a startup. The main point was that the graphics added value rather than distracted from the explained point.
Responsive Frontend
When it comes to design, it helps to have 8 years of fullstack web development under my belt. Designs often fail responsive tests unless engineers are directed clearly.
Optimization and Tests
By producing web optimized assets, loading time was reduced from 4.5 seconds to under 1 second. As for conversion, even without massive amounts of traffic, it was important to use Optimizely for A/B testing for small copy and placement tests.
Beyond measuring a few key metrics, the most important redesign goal was clarity and sales assistance. B2B calls resulted with greater ease and improved understanding of Doorman’s benefits.
