Company: Nolita Interior Design
Client: Anita Nolan
Business Overview
Nolita Interior Design is an interior design consultancy based in Tramore, Co. Waterford. It is owned and operated by Anita Nolan, an interior designer and colour consultant with over 12 years’ experience in residential and commercial interior design. Anita works in Waterford City and the surrounding areas of the south east, including Kilkenny and Wexford. She also works with clients nationally with online consultation and e-design packages.
Anita offers design services for every area of a home or business including;
- Interior design
- Bathroom design
- Colour consultation (interior and exterior)
- E-design (online consultation)
Anita creates simple, fresh, clean design tailored to each client and suitable for all budgets. Her aim is to offer affordable, practical yet beautiful design. She has worked with a wide range of clients on residential and business projects, from simple services like colour consultation to complete home interior design.
Website overview
This is a B2C website which details the services offered by Nolita Interior Design. The target audiences for the website are home and business owners who are looking for an interior designer’s professional expertise in renovating their home or commercial space.
I created the following customer personas:
The main objective of the website is to increase awareness of Nolita Interior Design and the services offered, in order to attract new clients. The site will also act as a portfolio to showcase Anita’s previous work and provide customer testimonials.
On the website, users will be able to;
- view information about the services offered and decide which is appropriate for their needs. The site has been designed with a page dedicated to each design service (Interior Design, Bathroom Design, Colour Consultation, E-design) accessible from the Design Services drop down menu in the main menu.
- contact Anita to further discuss her services or to book a consultation. The main Call to Action – the Contact Me button – is clearly positioned on every page, linking to the Contact page with contact details and a contact form. Contact details are also located in the footer, along with links to social media profiles.
- see examples of work previously completed by Anita. Images of previous projects completed by Anita are included throughout the website.
- verify the quality of Anita’s work by viewing testimonials from former clients. Customer reviews are posted throughout the site.
The main functionality item on the website is the contact form on the Contact page. There is a Call to Action – the Contact Me button – on every page, linking to the Contact page. The button is clearly positioned on every page and has a consistent design.
There are also image galleries throughout the site showcasing previous design projects completed by Anita. I have consistently used a gallery with 3 images across the site.
Design brief
I wanted the website to be very visual as this is a design business and potential clients will want to see the finished product and imagine what their home could look like. Therefore, I want the imagery to really stand out. To achieve this, I ensured there is a lot of white space and kept the layout simple and uncluttered.
I kept the site navigation simple with clear headings and included a drop down menu for the design services with a page for each specific service.
Language
To align with the brand values, I have used a less formal style of writing to engage the customer and entice them to contact Anita for advice. The language is friendly, inviting, welcoming and helpful. I did not want the copy to sound too authoritative as Anita was clear that her role as an interior design is to work WITH the client, not impose her own design ON the client.
Font
I decided to use a sans-serif font to align with the overall feel of the site – simple, clean lines, clear layout. A sans-serif font is also better for legibility on smaller screens.
I looked at other interior design websites to get inspiration:
- Lindye Galloway font -Libre Franklin
- Studio McGee font – Helvetica Neue
- Lindsey Murillo font – Arial, Helvetica sans serif
I was limited in my choice of font as not all fonts are available in the theme I used. I tested the following fonts:
- Raleway
- Open Sans
- Muli
- Libre Franklin
- Montserrat
- Noto Sans
- Quattrocento Sans
I finally chose Raleway for both the headings and the body text.
Colours
For the colour palette, I chose neutral colours that reflect simplicity, modernism and minimalism.
- White background – cleanliness, space, neutral
- Grey font (#757677) – neutral, timeless, functional, rather than using black which can appear formal and authoritative
- Blush Pink (#E6DAD3) – soft, neutral, gentle, calm
I tested the font colour using the Contrast Checker from WebAIM.
Inspiration Sites
Anita likes the simplicity and the visual style of the websites below. These websites show that simplicity is very effective for a design website. A simple, uncluttered layout, plenty of white space and sharp, large images come together to create a visually appealing website. Based on the above sites, I decided to keep the website very simple. I made sure the layout was uncluttered, and used clear, sharp images that would stand out on the white background.
1. Studio Magee www.studio-mcgee.com
– A very clear, simple layout – clean lines.
– Use of neutral colours.
– Visually beautiful – lots of imagery, large images.
2. Lindye Galloway www.lindyegalloway.com
– Again simplicity, clean lines and neutral colours.
– Large images which stand out on a neutral background.
– Simple modern font.
KPIs
I will use the following KPIs to measure the success of the website;
- Set up a goal in Google Analytics and measure the conversion rate for completion of the contact form
- Track clicks on the e-mail link
- Average session duration – a higher amount of time on site indicates engagement and relevant content
- Pages viewed per session – indicates engagement
- Monitor new vs returning users – shows users found purpose in the website
Nolita Interiors 