SaaShr needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
SaaShr.com provides human resources, payroll, and other workforce management software as a service (SaaS) based applications over the internet to small and mid-sized businesses ranging from a few dozen to a few thousand employees.
Our new website should provide the look and feel of a cutting-edge software technology company. It should be representative of how high tech sites in the workforce management area might look in the near future (e.g. beyond Web 2.0). Corporate colors to include are black and PMS 382 c. Additional colors are at the designer's discretion.
We feel that the site is pretty good as is, but it should look more-up-to date with the changing world of technology, have better usage of real-estate, and incorporate more "human" elements to reflect our primary target audience.
•CPA Firms – certified professional accountants – provide accounting/payroll services to clients.
•Value Added Resellers – resell third party products/services.
Other possible visitors to the site: end user companies looking for HR, Payroll or TLM solutions, the media, members of investment community and others.
Demographics - Most visitors who access our site represent mid-top level roles in their organizations ranging from sales/business development staff to IT, to c-level executives. Typical age group of visitors is 45-60, typical users within companies responsible for day-to-day operations range between 25-45. The challenge is making the site appealing to the researching audience looking for high-tech solutions and decision makers who might be used to more traditional representations.
We would like to preserve many of our original illustrations at this point, so design should be made with them in mind. Specifically, most of the illustrations feature some version of a grid – consider having this kind of element subtly incorporated in the design so that the site better relates to existing illustrations. Some of the elements from the library of elements (i.e. bullets, fonts, etc.) that will be created in the process of the redesign might be applied to the offline media like marketing handouts so they have a consistent look when compared with the website.
Anchor Text – Currently our anchor text on sub-pages is larger than our standard text, which makes these links look awkward. New anchor text should stand out, but not be intrusive.
Differentiator Boxes - Create 5 or 6 boxes above/below/side of the flash area for differentiators – See inowweb.com.
Audience Identification – two dropdown menus.
Note: some pages at this level may (not) incorporate images (see HR and Payroll page on SaaShr.com).
Sub-sections to have several instances of press releases and materials to download (articles, white papers, case studies), interactive area (as above), media contact us, and a spot for video (5-6 sub-section areas).
This site is the general layout we like the best for the homepage from the dark gray menu bar down to the process buttons and would like to see something similar to it.
This is one of the companies in our space whose site is comparable to the site above. It has a really clean layout.
This is another one of the companies in our space whose site we like. Particularly the call to action buttons for the video and "tour" of the system. We would like similar buttons/boxes for a free white paper giveaway on selecting a software as a service provider and a picture / video testimonials spot.
This company has a great usage of space above the fold, virtually anything on their site can be accessed through this space.
This is one of the top companies in our space and their site has a very interesting use of real-estate with the two rounded box-type images above the fold (one being a video and the other an image). It might make sense for us to have our flash on one side and then the dropdown menu mentioned above to the other side or below the flash, please use your discretion.
This company's website is OK, but the aspect I really like about it is the number of way's they are garnishing contact information (and the design behind it). The icons are nice and would like to have a similar look to them (for the partner kit, and article giveaway). The newsletter opt-in area is lacking and would like something a bit more creative.