Increasing the acquisition of hybrid and remote workers with a landing page redesign

COMPANY

MY ROLE

UX Designer

PROJECT TYPE

Volunteer Project

TIMEFRAME

8 weeks—2023

OVERVIEW

challenge

Prospective users were struggling to understand the platform's offerings and how it would benefit them, leading to low acquisition and conversion rates.

Solution

Landing page redesign with clearer value proposition, improved information architecture, and more scannable content.

Team & Role

  • UX Designer: Led research planning and analysis, wireframing and design strategy. Contributed to high-fidelity designs

  • Worked with: 3 Master's students, Focused's CEO, Chief Product Officer, and lead engineer

key skills

  • Visual Design

  • Usability testing

  • Client communication

  • Information Architecture

impact

  • Resolved 5 usability issues through the redesign

  • 3+ proposed changes have been implemented in the live website.

  • Projected 15% increase in monthly sign-ups

CONTEXT

What if the solution to remote work productivity wasn't another app or system, but the simple act of working alongside others in a distraction-free space?

This is the mission of Focused. It's much needed in today's remote heavy world, with isolation and loneliness on the rise.

the challenge

A great product and mission hidden behind a confusing website

Focused helps remote workers stay productive with morning planning calls and deep work sessions. But when entering their website, first time visitors couldn't figure out what they actually offered and how it would benefit them.

in a nutshell

✅ Focused has a solid value proposition.

🤔 But prospective users aren't understanding it when landing on their website…

🕵️‍♀️ Let's find out what they're not getting and change it.

Goals

Business 💵: Increase user acquisition and revenue.

Human 🫶: Get more people to be part of this amazing community so they they feel more connected, focused, and productive throughout their day.

The approach

What I discovered through research

We ran 4 user tests, surveyed 27 people, and held stakeholder interviews to understand what was going wrong. The patterns were clear.

key insights

Lack of Trust: Limited social proof and brand recognition as a startup

Information Overload: Too much information overwhelms users 

Transparency: Need for more transparent explanation of the platform's features

Vague value proposition: Difficult to understand what value it would bring them

The insight: People don't want to read paragraphs about productivity. They want to quickly understand how it'll help their work days.

Design Approach

Less text, more clarity, more scannability

Instead of explaining every feature, I focused on showing the core value upfront and making information easy to scan.

Three principles guided my decisions:

  1. Visual hierarchy - Guide eyes to what matters most

  2. Show the benefit - Focus on outcomes, not features

  3. Progressive disclosure - Let users dig deeper when they're ready

Design Rationale

The impact

Several of the proposed design changes are live

✅ 5+ usability issues addressed

✅ At least 5 design changes have been implemented at focused.space

Unfortunately because this was a volunteer project for a limited time, I wasn't able to track how the changes impacted the business. If I were still there when it launched, I'd want to track:

  • Time on page

  • Monthly sign-ups

  • Retention rate

  • Qualitative feedback about new user experience and expectations

Reflection

What I wanted to show you…

I gained experience working in startups and environments with little structure and lots of ambiguity. I've learned how to adapt the "typical" design process to the context that it's in. Even with little resources and time, I was able to work effectively with a team to distill research insights into a tangible design solution.

What I'll bring with me to future projects…

Designing in different contexts: I learned about the importance of adapting to the context. Because this was a startup with little time and resources, I didn't get to test and do as many iterations as I would've liked. I learned to fall back on tried and tested design principles when making decisions if I didn't have the resources to test with users. I would've liked to make the website more "fancy," but given their constraints, I decided to keep it simple, focusing on clear copy and information architecture.

Design system: As this was one on my earlier design projects, looking back on it, I could've done a better job of documenting my design decisions, creating clear annotations for components. If I were to do this again, my handoff document would be more descriptive, and I would've asked up front what they needed in order to effectively implement changes.

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Contact

I'd love to connect, share experiences, and grow together 🌱

Seattle, WA, USA

sstumme3@gmail.com

Available for work

Available for work

Available for work

© 2025 — Created by Sarah <3