NJVision

Modernizing a brand’s digital identity to emphasize state-of-the-art technology and appeal a younger audience.

NJVision is a Union, New Jersey-based optometrist’s office dedicated to delivering expert eye care in a friendly, comfortable environment for patients of all ages. Dr. Dawn Arnold has been serving patients in the Union area for 25+ years and in 2020, Dr. Sally Bregman merged her Maplewood practice with Dr. Dawn’s practice.

Upon the merging of Dr. Dawn and Dr. Sally’s optometry practices, NJVision was ready for a brand refresh and mobile-first website redesign. They hoped to better highlight their specialty services, including keratoconus treatment and ortho-K, and appeal to a wider audience that included more young people – namely millennials.

Client

NJVision open_in_new

Year

2021

Responsibilities

Art Direction
Visual identity
Website Design & Development

UX designer | Grace Blondell, Rochester NY

Establishing a visual direction.

In discussions about the website design, the NJVision team referenced the Gucci website as inspiration and overall were drawn to sites and imagery that were high-end and “hyper-trendy.” They didn’t have strong branding and were open to using new fonts and a new color palette for their website redesign.

Based on feedback from the client, I moved forward with a refreshed visual identity. The doctors are fun, personable, and well-liked because they speak in terms their patients understand, which is carried through in fonts that have strong personalities, but are easy to read.

The client’s old site utilized black, red, and light blue – rather than start from scratch, I chose trendier shades of the existing colors, developing a final palette with mauve, navy blue, and beige. The final palette is soft, and mauve is an important statement color that helps differentiate NJVision from their competitors in the blue-dominated healthcare realm.

Color palette

art direction mood board | Grace Blondell, Rochester NY

Videoheader vision board

Identifying a photo & video style.

One of the key elements the client was focused on was a consistent photography style that represented the trendiest in glasses frames and eye care. I found that editorial-style photos, particularly fashion photos, best appealed to the client’s vision, and created a Lightroom preset for editing. By boosting the temperature, adjusting the tint to be slightly green, and decreasing the contrast, the photos feel modern and convey warmth, while not looking overly professional.

NJVision was also interested in using a videoheader for their website. I directed the production of the video, selecting stock clips and creating a vision board that represented the dynamic, fashion-forward look and feel I wanted to see in the final product. After creating a storyboard, I passed the files off to Dave Evers, a video editor, who cut together the final product.

Designing a mobile-first site.

After establishing a design system and guidelines for colors, fonts, and photos, I moved on to the website build. Because the mobile site was a priority, I worked on the desktop and mobile development side-by-side. SEO guidelines have changed dramatically since the client’s old site was built, so optimizing the site for Google was also critical.

I collaborated with Jimmy Palmere, a content writer, to organize the information on the site so that it was easy to follow for both site visitors and Google’s web crawlers.

To prevent excessive scrolling, lengthy information was condensed into toggles on both the desktop and mobile site. Columns and elements with horizontal scrolling were utilized to cut back on the overall scrolling for each page as well.

Because the website is so information-heavy, I used photos and different colored backgrounds to clearly define content sections. CTAs and buttons are featured frequently and prominently throughout the site to aid in navigation.