Revamping a 5G Chip Startup

Redesigning a semiconductor startup's website to improve user journey and content comprehension
My role:
Design Lead, Project Manager, Marketing Manager
Tools/Skills used:
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Confluence
Duration:
Oct 2021 - Mar 2024
Project overview:
EdgeQ is a startup focusing on 5G wireless infrastructure based in Silicon Valley. I was the second member to join the marketing team and found myself wearing multiple hats, one being an all-in-one designer. This includes graphics, website, documents, etc. I also played a project manager role when reaching out to external designers and vendors to create assets such as 3D renders and animations.

I led the website redesign, which involved outsourcing help from ~12 designers and developers at KoderLabs. While the redesign went live in 2022, I have continued to maintain and design new content and features.

EdgeQ Website
Problem:
EdgeQ's website needs to be updated to reflect the new branding and highlight the current products.  
Solution:
Create a website unique within the communications & chipset industry that showcases the product clearly.
New style guide:

When I first joined EdgeQ, I was asked to adjust the brand identity to feel more futuristic and cutting-edge. The founder also wanted a thin and open font for their slide decks.

Stakeholder interviews:

The executive team at EdgeQ felt the website was outdated and asked me to make it "unique." I organized meetings across different departments to gain a holistic understanding of the product and their vision for this redesign.


Executive: CEO + Founder
Marketing: Head of Marketing
Technical: VP of Product Management

I then took notes on wants, needs, and conducted quick competitor analyses based on sites mentioned by the stakeholders.

Competitor analyses:
Competitor analysis of Qualcomm's website from October 2021
Competitor analysis of Mavenir's website from October 2021
Competitor analysis of Nvidia's website from October 2021
Identifying the audience:

After speaking with the executive team, I identified the target users into four major groups: investors, customers, job applicants, and journalists/analysts--with the first two being a priority. I created user personas to better understand EdgeQ's different relationships and to keep this audience in mind during the design process.

User persona for a customer/partner user from the OEM & Macro industry
User persona of a customer/partner user from the cloud & hyperscale industry
User persona of a journalist user who focuses on semiconductor and wireless communications news
User persona of an investor user looking to invest in deep tech startups
Information architecture:

I rebuilt the information architecture with a hierarchy-style diagram I adopted to suit EdgeQ’s website needs. I worked across teams to rewrite the content to be more coherent and embody EdgeQ’s branding. My objective was to reorganize the content to feel more logical and intuitive.

Website hierarchy graphic of all the content that will be in the new website
Content audit & inventory
Being concise is essential.

I created a content inventory spreadsheet to help define the new layout and content. I added all existing current content on the website and labeled what to keep, remove, update, and rewrite. This website didn’t have many pages/links, but I wanted everything users encounter to feel natural. Through this process, I realized that:

1. The written content is unfriendly towards users that aren’t engineers or in the telecom industry. There is a lot of jargon from the get go.
2. The technical content is paired with confusing imagery that lack context.
3. The pages that require the most changes are the Home page and Technology page.
4. Overall, the writing needs clarity.

Initial Wireframes:

The landing page and product pages went through the most iterations, and were the most crucial to stakeholders. Stakeholder wants oriented strongly around attention-grabbing visuals, so I focused on developing brand image assets and establishing a b-roll collection.

For the landing page, we wanted a video relevant to people (as opposed to vector graphics, or a chip photo, for example). We chose a tablet in a smart agriculture context. The tagline needed to address the bigger picture of connectivity. The header text changed often, but I decided on "A wireless world..."

For the product page, we had originally designed for an explosion animation of a small cell revealing EdgeQ’s product inside, but this eventually shifted towards designing an abstract chip graphic instead.

Wireframes showing initial and iterated on concepts
Final Mockups:

Many of the image assets were developed with 3D designers since we did not have existing product imagery at hand. There has been some iterations since the launch (new pages, content, etc.), but these are the latest visuals. Stakeholder wanted the content to flow in movement-wise, which I worked with the developers on to create the desired effect.