APCON Website

APCON Inc.'s corporate website — www.apcon.com — welcomes an audience from across the globe to learn about the valuable benefits of proactive network traffic monitoring for security purposes and how APCON can provide best-in-class hardware and software products for network solutions.

Role
Art Direction / UI/UX Designer

Client
APCON

Tools
Figma / Adobe CC

Duration
2022— 2025

OVERVIEW

A modern site for a leading brand.

APCON is one of the leading companies in the network traffic monitoring industry. APCON provides hardware and software products that mirror and collect network traffic for filtering and optimization, so that a range of network and security tools receive high-quality data for threat detection, behavior analysis, and troubleshooting issues.

The mission for this rebrand of APCON's website was to build a simpler experience that is more inviting to non-technical visitor and to enhance their understanding of the challenges of network visibility and how our products are best suited to alleviate those problems.

The final website utilized a minimalist approach to displaying information, featuring large visuals with a precisely curated level of detail that enhances the visitor's journey in learning about APCON's products. The visuals within the design were carefully chosen to showcase the sophistication of our offerings and foster trust in our brand.

RESEARCH

Research was key to see what we needed to change.

Conducting research is essential for understanding and identifying key challenges that inform design decisions. Through user interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis, I was able to uncover pain points, preferences, and gaps in the market. This process helped minimize assumptions, align the product with user expectations, and improve usability.

COMPETITIVE AUDIT

A competitive audit in UX research is a vital step for assessing competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and identifying opportunities for differentiation. Through examining user interfaces and experiences, I gained insights into best practices and market gaps, guiding my design decisions and enhancing website usability. This audit ensured that the final product offers a compelling, user-centered experience that stands out.

USER RESEARCH

User research was conducted to gather direct feedback on the current state of the website and assess user satisfaction. I conducted personal interviews and followed up with email surveys to collect a large data set of user feedback. This research expanded my perspective on how users navigated the website. This helped me understand how to improve the usefulness and intuitiveness of the website for returning and new visitors.

DESIGN APPROACH

Simple, component-based, and focused.

We encountered several challenges while redesigning such a large website. How to ensure that the design and branding are consistently reflected on each page? How to guarantee a great user experience across all screen sizes? Finally, how to achieve this while efficiently managing our limited time and resources? To address these challenges, we adopted a component-based approach for the user interface. I designed numerous highly reusable components that could help us rapidly generate pages that looked great. This strategy allowed us to quickly iterate on designs and content, resulting in faster development times and exceeding leadership expectations.

Portfolio 2024 – apcon.com-Flow Charts-3

ANIMATIONS

Animations on pages make them more engaging, particularly when motion can help clarify a concept or bring a product to life. For example, the animation here illustrates where APCON products operate in the network infrastructure and data flow.

PRODUCT ANIMATIONS

Incorporating 3D product renderings and animations into webpages  can break the 2D limitations of screen displays and improve users' understanding of products. For APCON, we utilized 3D animations  to showcase the complexity and sophistication of our products, enhancing visual engagement for visitors.

CONTINUED DISCOVERY

Understanding network monitoring technologies can be challenging. That's why, at the bottom of each webpage, we aimed to create further discovery options for new users who want to learn more about our wide range of products and explore how we address network traffic monitoring and security challenges.

BRANDING STANDARDS

A new typeface was selected for the website redesign to give it a fresh, bold, and clean appearance. The colors were taken from the existing brand style guide, but we also needed to introduce a new palette of shades along with new semantic colors.

USABILITY & ACCESSIBILITY TESTING

Testing new page design to improve user satisfaction.

Usability studies in UX can be a game-changer because they let me see firsthand how real users interact with the new design, revealing what progress has been achieved and where there is still room for improvement. By observing users as they navigate a product, I can pinpoint confusing elements, streamline flows, and fix pain points before launch. This hands-on approach ensures the final product feels intuitive and effortless, boosting user satisfaction by creating experiences that are not just functional but genuinely enjoyable to use.

PAGE REDESIGN PROTOTYPES

The main pages were redesigned based on user feedback and competitive audit results. The homepage and hardware pages were rebuilt with a simple user experience that does not overwhelm the user with too much information. These pages provide a clear structure and journey to dive deeper into the content of the website and products.

HOME PAGE

HARDWARE PAGE

USABILITY SYUDY

Once I completed creating a high-fidelity prototype of the first main pages, I wanted to conduct a usability study to record user feedback on the comprehension of content, website navigation, and task completion.

After receiving user feedback, I produced affinity maps of improvements that could be implemented into the new design.

FINAL RESULTS

A completely new image of APCON's on the internet.

The new APCON website represents a modern and welcoming face for the brand, designed to help users understand the importance of network monitoring and to explore and interact with its products. The website is now more accessible and inviting, particularly for new visitors who may not be experts in the field.

The results of this redesign have been impressive. Our website traffic has increased by 40% compared to the average of the last six months, the bounce rate has been cut in half, and the average session duration has increased by 200%, as visitors are more engaged with the content and find it easier to navigate.

However, there is still more work to be done to build upon these achievements and discover additional ways to enhance the user experience on the website.

APCON HOMEPAGE

The homepage's design grabs visitors' attention with large visuals and animations, providing intuitive pathways to explore the brand's products and main technologies.

INTELLAVIEW USER INTERFACE

The IntellaView User Interface page displays one of APCON's most popular software applications. The page focuses on discussing the main benefits of utilizing this software, along with the main features and services a user can perform.

INTELLAVIEW HARDWARE

The IntellaView Hardware page displays the premier product line of IntellaView hardware products. The clean page design allows the user to quickly browse the page and continue to the larger, specific sections of hardware products.