Hi Stephanie!

Here is the website and brand audit for TextBetter.

Take some time to review my notes on the design and performance of your website and my comments below on the branding, and let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Tim YoungsTim Youngs | Principal Creative @Whited
hello@bradland.com | 707.387.7481
Tim Youngs

Performance Review

Notes: Overall, the website is performing fairly well, though there is plenty of room for improvement. The below report shows scores for Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO. You’ll see that the primary place the website is failing is in the loading time (Performance). I tested the load time several ways and it is averaging between 2.4 – 7 seconds to load depending on device. There are a few simple solutions that could improve the load time, including compressing images on the site, minifying file types, creating cached versions of the site, and more. These could all be address on Phase 3.

Website Design Review

Concerns:

  • Navigation is confusing with no clear call-to-actions. Consider what action(s) you want visitors to take?
  • The site is very text heavy, and difficult to digest, with insufficient distinction of headings and subheadings
  • Top banner changes size throughout website
  • Inconsistent use of text colors and sizes
  • No Favicon for website was found
  • Imagery looks really “stock” — should feel more human and authentic
  • Site does not view well on small screen (see example shown to the left)

Notes: I suggest using a combination of more than one font, with clear weight distinctions between headings, and subheadings, as well as visual separators (lines, background colors, images, icons, etc.) to break up the content for better readability. Among several smaller fixes and consistency issues, I would also suggest using more images/graphics of your platform. Clear visuals will help visitors understand what you offer without needing to read everything on the website. Ideally, you want visitors to understand what you offer and how it’s beneficial to them within the first few seconds (10-15) on the site.

Branding Review

Concerns:

  • Inconsistent use of colors
  • Inconsistent use of font styles
  • Current branding imagery is too “stock” looking
  • Current logo is just Helvetica unaltered. This should be customized a bit since it’s a trademark.

Notes: I reviewed the brand collateral pieces your provided, and I see some elements that work well (particularly in the PowerPoint), and many that don’t work at all.

In the Brand Style Guide I will be able to address these issues by creating guides for font consistency, a clearer color palette with direction on color usage, imagery standards, and additional styling elements.

I mentioned this before, but I would like to explore some variation on the current yellow color. The yellow you are using now is a little “corporate” feeling and does not show well on top of white. I would also like to create a variant of the existing logo for you to consider. I will send those separately.

Final Notes on Current Branding and Website

You’re off to a great start — and I love the concept of your business!

As you probably know, your branding is a very important aspect of your company. It is the public face that people see both on and offline, and it influences how people think of you. When I audit brands like this, I try to take into account best practices for branding design an consistency, as well as giving consideration to what your company does, the people behind it, your values, and how you differentiate yourself from others in the market.

The two biggest issues I see right now are with brand consistency (fonts, colors, imagery, styling), and a lack of “humanness” in the way you present your brand (communicate and photos). Both of these can definitely be solved through a little brand realigning!

How to make the brand more consistent:

Focus on consistent use of colors and font styles across both print and web. We can develop a set of guidelines for the sizing and color choices for headings, subheadings, copy text, and text links. In the brand guide we can also dictate other items such as correct button colors and shapes, logo usage and spacing, background color usage, and more.

How to make the brand more human:

Focus on finding imagery for the website and supporting collateral that shows humans in a more natural way (i.e. people shouldn’t be looking at the camera, or looking posed, or in unnatural environments). Images should also be consistent with the intended use of the TextBetter service, and should be consistent in color tones with the rest of the branding.