The homepage of KB Contractors TX, featuring a hero image of a one-story white house, a dark brown section with white words "The Contractors You Can Trust."
Responsive redesign of a general contractor's website.

KB Contractors TX

  • đź‘©My role: UX Researcher and Designer
  • ‍💼Project: B2C, general contractor, responsive website redesign
  • 🗓️Timeline: 2 months

Overview

KB Contractors TX is a woman-owned general contractor that has already completed over 700 projects. The company does full house construction, renovations, additions, and landscaping. Most jobs are referrals, but with the economy slowing down, KB needed to expand marketing avenues.

Objective

The owner threw up the website when she first started the business and hasn’t paid it much mind, since the actual work of being a general contractor has taken up her attention. Desiring a redesign, she wanted to speak to her target audience: Austinites with the interest and budget to remodel their spaces.

Research Strategy

  • Target demographic user interviews
  • Expert interviews
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Industry research

Pain Points and Solutions

Pain Points/Insights

Throughout my interviews it became obvious that there were three different stages to engaging the work of a contractor, and thus pain points, or at the very least concerns, in each stage.

While the scope of the project was limited to redesigning the website, the insights revealed about the other two stages were useful in ideation and prioritization. Future concerns beyond choosing a contractor are just as valid and deserve recognition.

Beginning (website and choosing a contractor):

  • Homeowners search for more information about what services the contractor provides and precise work the contractor has done to gauge if they are a good fit for the project.
  • Homeowners search for more information about the business and its workers to gauge the contractor’s integrity.

During the process:

  • Homeowners express resentment at having to be responsible for project management and maintaining lines of communication as they are paying for the service and don’t want to do work.
  • Homeowners complained of delays and surprise costs because of known and unforeseen factors not outlined in estimates and project scope because it soured the whole experience.

After wrap:

  • Homeowners expressed frustration over finding issues after a project is completed because they were not informed of practical, safety, or cosmetic choices.

Solutions

To address these pain points, I incorporated the following features:

Include Case Studies
To inspire trust, KB needed to show that they hadn't run away from problems and instead worked to solve them.

Project Specifics
Each featured project starts with "What the client wanted" and "What we can take credit for." Nearly every user who did the site audit asked, "Did she do all of this?" So I built that in to each project.  

Meet the Team
Workers are going to be coming into clients' houses. Seeing a face on the site before they see them on site alleviates stress.

Values/Mission Statement
In many of the interviews, people wanted to know if the staff was treated well and, like trust above, if KB had any integrity. Just saying you keep lines of communication open and have integrity isn't much, but stating what you actually do to support your team and your clients does.

Expertise Section on Maintenance
While some users already know exactly what they want, none of them are contractors. Giving an example of how inside knowledge can save clients money over time positions KB as an honest expert.

Free Quote and Renderings
Transparency was another big concern for users. Being able to see what you'd get for free before you even engage KB's services, shows they have nothing to hide.

Philanthropy
I don't have to explain this one. You get it.

Screenshots from Old Site

screenshot from original site - home hero section. The header is not fully visible, the image is of a modernized late 1900s house in light brown and black with a low concrete lattice fencescreenshot from original site - Section title "Our Services. We offer a range of services to meet your needs" and then there's a staggered stack of cards with orange icons and text for each services, such as CNC cutting for wood and steel, sod installation, and land scape lighting. The icons are repeated and don't generally match the service they're with.screenshot of the original site - section title flush left but the text is centered: "We believe each client and vendor is a long term partnership." Then there are a bunch of logos of vendors they use all clumped together.screenshot from original site - "Our Projects. We build Projects that last" and then "I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me..." There are also photos of beautiful work with names like IMG_5935.jpg.

Final Product

Small Icons

A selection of 9 icons created for the new site: astroturf, sod installation, landscape lighting, flooring, outdoor kitchens, irrigation, concrete, cnc cutting (wood & steel), carpentry. All are constructed of thin dark orange lines and relatively angular.

Large Icons

Selection of 3 large icons created for the steps in the process for the new site: Site evaluation with total station on it's tripod, Project & Site management with a clipboard checklist and a clock face, and Fine-tuning & Handoff with a key in an open hand surrounded by confetti

Logo

New logo - dark brown background with the letters "KBC" stair-stepping down with a textured outline in a light cream, so it looks kind of like a ranch brand mark. There are two lines above and below the letters in the same textured light cream. New logo - light cream background with the letters "KBC" stair-stepping down with a textured outline in a dark brown, so it looks kind of like a ranch brand mark. There are two lines above and below the letters in the same textured dark brown cream.

New Site

Macbook open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX, featuring a hero image of a one-story white house, a dark brown section with white words "The Contractors You Can Trust."iPhone open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX, featuring a hero image of a one-story white house, a dark brown section with white words "The Contractors You Can Trust."Macbook open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX section titled "Did another contractor leave you in a lurch? We can save the day." There is a mission statement followed by a blurb titled "Our Team's Experience." Along the right side of the screen are the steps in the process with icons and arrows.iPhone open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX section titled "Did another contractor leave you in a lurch? We can save the day." There is a mission statement with a button to the About page.Macbook open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX "Our Partners and Vendors" section. The vendor logos are all in grayscale and organized in a grid.iPhone open to the homepage of KB Contractors TX "Our Partners and Vendors" section. The vendor logos are all in grayscale and organized in a grid.

Impact

The owner is happy with the work and with users are starting to reach out for quotes through the site, engagement is up 100%.

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