Lynk website redesign was a freelance UIUX project I had the opportunity to pick up in August 2017. I was commissioned to update their website UX flow as well as its visual design based on the new business objectives and transformation.

Lynk Website Redesign

Lynk is an international expert-client matching service based in Hong Kong. Its sales team was eager to move toward the web app interface to reach more potential experts and clients. Being a global business, Lynk was also trying to explore the US market besides growing its main user base in East Asia.

2 key screens from the final design deliverables. I wanted the imagery to feel professional yet approachable

1. Increase lead generation

2. Increase conversion – successful online expert profile creation

Conduct user and market research to device the best plan for redesign with the company's budget in mind.

Main Objective

Strategy

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Defining Phase

I set up meetings with the Lynk internal design and marketing teams to brainstorm initial ideas and gather existing feedback. The session was fruitful and resolved some misconceptions I had before. Here are the points—

1. Lynk used to be an offline platform where industry clients can browse experts and connect with Lynk.

2. As market demand changed, Lynk wanted to switch to an agency model targeting experts and clients who wanted to work closely with Lynk to share professional knowledge, expertise, and insights with one another.

3. The main business objective is expert conversion— especially for those who had minimal experience with consulting on the side.

Some of the personas compiled based on user research.

The original Lynk Global website design

One of the user journeys I came up with was based on user research — this one was focused on a potential expert.

Main Objective

1. Increase lead generation

2. Increase conversion – successful online expert profile creation

Strategy

Conduct user and market research to device the best plan for redesign with the company's budget in mind.

User & Market Research

I had no prior knowledge about the Expert Network, and because of my own availability bias, it seems to me like a new concept and not a lot of people know about it. After some initial research on platforms like Quora and competitors such as GLG, I realized it was much bigger and more widely used than I expected. There was a niche community of end users consisting of primarily senior-level professionals.

Being uncertain about the problem space, I started setting up research calls, finding connections of connections, and setting up dinners with old friends who worked in consulting while having a conversation over the topic of the Expert Network by showing Lynk’s existing website to them.

I had no prior knowledge about the Expert Network, and because of my own availability bias, it seems to me like a new concept and not a lot of people know about it. After some initial research on platforms like Quora and competitors such as GLG, I realized it was much bigger and more widely used than I expected. There was a niche community of end users consisting of primarily senior-level professionals.

User & Market Research

Being uncertain about the problem space, I started setting up research calls, finding connections of connections, and setting up dinners with old friends who worked in consulting while having a conversation over the topic of the Expert Network by showing Lynk’s existing website to them.

User Testing

While there were clear points where the usability could be improved, I took the current interface and tested it on random potential target users I came across. Generally, I tried to keep the guerrilla testing to about 15-20 minutes especially when the testing was impromptu. I gathered 10 people in total and produced a spreadsheet with potential UX fixes based on my findings.

User Research

I also conducted in-depth paid interviews with 5 industry professionals from 5 different professions who have various degrees of consulting experience. This offered me a bit more insight into the current state of consulting in my area from an American perspective.

While there were clear points where the usability could be improved, I took the current interface and tested it on random potential target users I came across. Generally, I tried to keep the guerrilla testing to about 15-20 minutes especially when the testing was impromptu. I gathered 10 people in total and produced a spreadsheet with potential UX fixes based on my findings.

User Testing

User Research

I also conducted in-depth paid interviews with 5 industry professionals from 5 different professions who have various degrees of consulting experience. This offered me a bit more insight into the current state of consulting in my area from an American perspective.

Research Findings

One big topic that we continued to discuss was motivation— what exactly motivated our users to do what they do in general? With all the data I got from user research. I came up with a few user journeys where I was able to identify some of the key areas of opportunity that I could explore during the wireframing phase. Here are a few opportunity areas we identified:

For professionals who have done consulting before: time management and personal fulfillment seems to be bigger factor than monetization
For professional who has not done so much consulting: impact and monetization seem equally important.
There can be different levels of concern for confidentiality and conflict of interest. However, the amount of impact and lack of credibility seems to be an overarching commonality of the user’s first impression of the website.
Credibility seems to be more important than expected not only for the “is it worth my time” mentality but also for a sense of security and privacy protection.

Design Results

Due to confidentiality, I was not able to share specific findings and key points that feed into my design decisions, but feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more.

The following are a series of deliverables that I shared with the client throughout different stages of the design process.

Due to confidentiality, I was not able to share specific findings and key points that feed into my design decisions, but feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more.

Design Results

For professionals who have done consulting before: time management and personal fulfillment seems to be bigger factor than monetization
For professional who has not done so much consulting: impact and monetization seem equally important.
There can be different levels of concern for confidentiality and conflict of interest. However, the amount of impact and lack of credibility seems to be an overarching commonality of the user’s first impression of the website.
Credibility seems to be more important than expected not only for the “is it worth my time” mentality but also for a sense of security and privacy protection.

One big topic that we continued to discuss was motivation— what exactly motivated our users to do what they do in general? With all the data I got from user research. I came up with a few user journeys where I was able to identify some of the key areas of opportunity that I could explore during the wireframing phase. Here are a few opportunity areas we identified: