Cobalt Construction

A redesigned website for a Seattle contractor with over 30 years of experience renovating and remodeling homes.

Challenge

Cobalt Construction brings a wealth of experience to the table, executing each project with craft and precision. As they hit their 30-year mark, their website needed a remodel of its own. My team at Chalkbox replaced a website that was built over 10+ years ago, redesigning it to meet current web conventions, and user expectations. This was critical considering more and more of Cobalt's clientele are tech-professionals.

We needed to achieve this with limited scope, a quick timeline, all while collaborating with a client who maintains a busy and full schedule

My Role:

Lead Designer responsible UI / UX.

Company:

Chalkbox Creative

Key Responsibilities:

Audience research
Prototype creation and testing
Stakeholder presentations and collaboration facilitation
Asset delivery and launch

Before and after, a digital renovation.

Cobalt's previous site had been in existence, and performing fairly well for over 10 years. However, it failed to keep up in terms of design, accessibility, responsiveness, and ease of updating content. It was well past time to tear down some dry-wall and start framing a new experience.

Simple, but effective design conventions.

If you've worked with anyone in the construction industry, you may have noticed the straightforward nature those in that industry operate and communicate. Good contractors, like Cobalt, bring honesty and transparency to their process. We wanted their new site to function in the same way. Clear, concise information in easy to understand layouts, while showcasing the quality of their craft.

Quality and craft on the go.

Understanding the evolving demographics of Cobalt's audience meant that this site needed to function anywhere. On a desktop, tablet, or phone, Cobalt always presents themselves in line with the high standard of work they produce.

Key take-away and lessons learned.

With the scope and process on this project somewhat truncated, it was a challenge to build an experience that met Cobalt's needs and would grow with them into the future. However, success within constraints is an important attribute of effective designers, and my team at Chalkbox met this challenge head on in close collaboration with Cobalt. Would we have liked to do more testing, more user experience work to make sure we got the flow just right? Sure. However, we still built an effective website that upgrades Cobalt's web presence to be more inline with the work they produce. A wonderful renovation, and once this new space has been lived in a bit, perhaps we'll have the opportunity to fine tune.

ADAM TAYLOR

Cobalt Construction

A redesigned website for a Seattle contractor with over 30 years of experience renovating and remodeling homes.

Challenge

Key take-away and lessons learned.