Commercial Silk

Rebuilding a website around high-quality imagery.

Commercial Silk sells acoustic and artificial greenery solutions to contractors, interior designers, and architects. Its website was built years ago to rank in search, not to help visitors decide, and the marketing message wasn’t turning visitors into leads.

Working as both the designer and a member of the marketing team, I used research and heatmaps to rebuild the site around what visitors actually wanted to see.

Client

  • Plantscape Inc.
  • Commercial Silk
  • CSI Creative

Role

  • UX/UI Design
  • UX Research
  • Brand Design
  • Marketing

Key Methods

  • Persona Research
  • Heatmap Analysis
  • High-fidelity Prototyping

Visual update

Before & After

01

Landing page

Landing page, before Landing page, after Before After
02

Header navigation

Header navigation, before Header navigation, after Before After

The problem

A site built for search, not for decisions.

The site was created to provide SEO value, not so much for the user experience. The goal was as many pages as possible with as many keywords as possible, to draw in leads and start conversations with sales reps.

But those marketing terms weren’t turning into conversions, and heatmaps showed that on many pages the visuals simply weren’t engaging enough.

Key insight

Even practical contractors wanted to see project imagery.

Despite extensive research on personas, the industry, and the process, I kept reaching the same conclusion: there wasn’t enough high-quality, relevant imagery on the site, and people were specifically looking for it. Interior designers and architects, sure. But general contractors, who care more about practicality and technical details, were also requesting it in their feedback.

What I changed

Three decisions to make the site visual-first.

The message was clear: more pictures, and more examples of how these products translate into projects and what types of applications people use them for.

01

Not just more, but higher quality

Rebuilt key pages around high-quality project imagery, so visitors see how a product looks in use before they read specs.

    After: a key page rebuilt around project imagery Add image

    02

    Clearer information architecture and navigation

    Years of keyword-driven pages left the site with pages that no longer serve their original purpose. I helped consolidating them and clarifying what each one is for.

    Old and new navigation Add image

    03

    Photo outreach initiative

    Project photos are the main point of interest for this business, for social, email, and sales meetings. I’m working with marketing to reach past clients and acquire the rights to use professional project installations.

    Example project photo Add image

    How I worked

    Designing from inside the marketing team.

    I worked as both the designer and a member of the marketing team, so the research and the day-to-day marketing work fed each other.

    Design

    • Persona research
    • Heatmap analysis
    • High-fidelity prototyping
    • Rebuilding key pages around high-quality project imagery

    Marketing

    • Media schedules and project detective work
    • Keeping both sites’ data up to date
    • Market, heatmap (Clarity), and form-submission reports for marketing and the CEO

    What's next

    Where this goes from here.

    1. 01

      Navigation cleanup

      Consolidate the keyword-era pages so each one has a clear purpose.

    2. 02

      Professional photography rights

      Keep reaching out to past clients to acquire the rights to professional project installations.

    3. 03

      LEED v5 research

      Researching what LEED v5 means for the product line and how to explain it to buyers.