Website Redesign: Expert Market
UX & UI Design • Visual Design • Workshops
Project Overview
Client: Expert Market.
Industry: B2B marketplace, and a publishing company within the business services industry.
My Role: User Research, Workshops, Visual Design, UI Design, and Project Management.
Website: https://www.expertmarket.com
Introduction
Expert Market is a global comparison site covering 30+ industries, offering guides, reviews, and quotes for business products. This is a high-traffic, high-value brand, attracting around 60k monthly visitors and generating approximately £200k Gross Profit across 14 countries.
The website hadn’t been updated in over five years, making it look very outdated and full of design and technical issues. The core goals were clear: build a brand new website that was easy to use, boosting user trust, and effectively increasing conversions.
The Challenge
After looking at the data, we noticed we had almost no returning visitors. This indicated that users were not having a successful experience. To address these issues, we took a data-driven approach. We redefined user journeys and reorganised content types to improve clarity. We then redesigned the end-to-end conversion flow, tailoring it precisely to meet user needs, which included major improvements to the site's search function and overall architecture.
Poor User Experience:
Users struggled to find the information they needed, suggesting significant issues with content organisation and navigation.
Low Trust and Conversion:
The outdated design and poor site experience actively caused users to distrust the brand and its recommendations, directly impacting conversion rates.
Discovery
Finding out who our users are
The UX Designer collected demographic data from Google Analytics and user polls, then I led a workshop with Expert Market stakeholders to create user personas. This helped us better understand our users. One key insight was that many users are decision-makers, but not the business owners themselves.
Understanding what they want
We got several insights from the research. It revealed what users trust on the pages, their visual preferences, how they interact with the site, and what extra information could help them make better decisions. Using these insights, we started to restructure the navigation and improve the information architecture.
Design Audit
Expert Market has been live for 12 years. Besides the editorial site, there are many marketing landing pages, ads, and social media channels that the Design Team doesn’t control. Over time, different teams ran experiments to boost conversions without following design guidelines, leading to a lot of brand and design inconsistencies.
We reviewed all touchpoint and combined that with user feedback to identify what needed improvement and how much work it would take. We estimated the design and engineering effort required, helping us prioritise with stakeholders.
To decide on next steps, we had meetings with stakeholders to agree on what changes to include in the redesign plan. We also worked with marketing teams to support them with clearer guidelines for a consistent brand look.
Data Analysis
We reviewed Google Analytics data for key metrics like conversion rate, time on page, and bounce rate, and analysed Hotjar heatmaps to see how users scrolled and clicked. From this, we created lists of improvements for the new design based on real user behaviour.
We then combined this data with user personas, earlier research, and the design audit to guide the new design decisions.
Competitor Research
Next, we analysed competitors to understand their websites. We wanted to get insights about their goals, how they present similar content, and any ideas we could use or improve in our own design components.
We also ran a workshop to collect visual inspiration where team members shared websites and components they liked. After that, I researched similar industries and created a moodboard to guide our visual direction.
Exploration
Sketching Workshop
Contributed to a session with other designers where we reviewed existing data and key problems, identified the main requirements, and sketched various ideas. We then voted to choose the best concepts to use for the wireframes.
Wireframes Creation
Using the winning ideas as a foundation, we defined the structure and content layout in collaboration with the writers.
Feedback Rounds
We first present the wireframes to the Design team to gather feedback on structure and functionality. After making improvements, we share them with the wider stakeholder group. tStakeholders are invited to share their feedback by adding sticky notes on Miro or comments on Figma.
Designs & Prototypes
We began by exploring the new branding and creating multiple design options in collaboration with the Brand team. After several feedback rounds, we agreed on a visual direction. The designs were then shared with stakeholders (PO, PM, SEO, CRO, Content, Engineering), and refined based on their input before final approval.
User Testing
User Interviews
Once the designs were ready, the UX and Product designers conducted moderated interviews to test the new main pages and conversion components. We interviewed two user groups that matched our target demographics:
Group A – Telephone Systems
Decision-makers at medium to large companies who currently use telephone systems and want to update them.
Group B – Merchant Accounts
Decision-makers at small companies that accept online card payments and are looking to update their payment processing setup.
Besides testing the new designs and user journeys, we learned a few important things: users prefer images that show people using the product, many didn’t know what Expert Market is, which affected trust. Also, seeing logos from well-known providers made them feel more confident about the site and more likely to convert.
A/B testing
The Conversion Rate Optimisation team ran A/B tests on the top banners displayed on article pages, which are the main conversion points. The tests showed a 21.2% increase in conversion rate with 98% statistical significance.
Documentation & Handover
Engineering Handover
We prepared comprehensive handover documents for the engineering team. These documents included the finalised style guide, component states, and all necessary assets, such as exported icons and illustrations, along with precise details on columns and spacing.
Following this, we held a dedicated session to walk the engineers through all designs and new features.
Quality Assurance & UAT
Once the staging site was ready, the Senior Product Designer and I led User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Working together, we recorded all identified issues in a structured spreadsheet. Problems were clearly separated into either visual or technical categories, and a priority list was assigned.
Results
After being live for 6 months, we saw a 58% increase in traffic and a 60% increase in conversions YoY. Scroll depth improved on all pages, and page speed got much better.
These metrics are great and really promising, but what matters most is that the designs were guided by data and user insights. We created personalised user journeys based on what users want. Thanks to the new navigation and site structure, users can easily find what they’re looking for without frustration.
We're also being more transparent and building trust with our stakeholders by showcasing the research behind every article, explaining who the featured suppliers are and why, and explaining where conversion points will take them.
