Oceantic Network
The Oceantic Network is the premier member-based organization dedicated to growing the offshore wind and other ocean renewable industries and their supply chains. One of the main challenges we faced was creating a site that was engaging as well as informative for the appropriate niche users.
Taking on the challenge:
With any sustainable energy technology website, the challenges lay in conveying complex technical information in an engaging and user-friendly manner, while highlighting environmental benefits. An integral part of this site was including the ability for users in the industry to sign up for upcoming events and seminars. We also needed to make sure that the site was clear and usable for mobile as well, since it needed to be accessed from the field at times. We wanted to create a site that could educate visitors on this sustainable energy while serving as an industry tool for networking and awareness.
Creating the framework:
With almost every site I design, it begins with a thoroughly thought out framework. I collaborated with the UX and dev team at Unleashed Technologies as well as the client to create wireframes that would ensure our designs transformed the site map into a user experience that would meet all of the client’s needs for their site visitors.
I was given updated branding from the client’s branding agency. I like to begin any design process by doing my initial inspiration searches. I look at what competitors are doing, as well as some inspiration sites of unrelated industries with well designed sites. In the end, I think I was able to come up with a design that was both accessible and still very visually engaging. Offshore wind is a sustainable technology and could very well be the future of energy. I wanted to design a site to reflect that, in both the freshness of the color ratios as well as the creation of each component. In the end, the client was very happy with the result!
Let’s design:
