Adam Phillips’ Website
CONTRIBUTIONS
TARGET USERS
Duration
Project Overview
Adam Phillips, Job Search Coach
Adam Phillips, a career consultant, helps master’s degree graduates navigate their job search both locally and internationally. He was using a simple newsletter platform to publish daily articles that guide, motivate, and inspire his readers toward their desired careers.
I designed and developed a WordPress website for his business that would serve as a central hub for his content. The website needed to integrate with his existing Beehiiv newsletter platform, allowing for seamless distribution of articles and easy subscription sign-ups.
First Problem
The Previous Newsletter Platform Lacked Features to Encourage Sign-Ups
Although the existing platform is straightforward, featuring only a sign-up form and a newsletter library, most sign-ups were driven only by direct messaging and word-of-mouth.
First Solution
Establishing Credibility and Building Trust
The newly branded website showcases Adam Phillips’ newsletters, blogs, benefit descriptions, testimonials, and an About page, designed to boost subscriptions and build trust with prospects.
Second Problem
Outdated Visual Appeal Limited the Website’s Marketability
The previous website’s aesthetic did not align with Adam’s core values and unique selling points—his expertise, positive personality, and hands-on mentorship. This limited the platform’s reach and effectiveness.
Second Solution
A Rebranded Website Amplifying Adam’s Key Differentiator
Through interviews with his clients, we identified Adam’s key differentiators. The redesigned website now reflects his caring, intelligent, and friendly nature, enhancing his presence in the consulting landscape. The new color palette, typography, and graphics were chosen to convey his tone and personality, helping users connect with his newsletters and coaching services more effectively.
Screenshots
Empathy
Understanding the experiences of the job seekers
To ensure the website met the needs of its users, I conducted user and quantitative research to better understand the motivations of master’s degree holders in their job search. With these, I developed two key user personas to guide the design process:
The Immigrant
Master’s degree holders aiming to secure employment in a foreign country.
The Ideal Career Guy
Master’s degree holders focused on landing and securing long-term roles in their desired industry.
Definition & Problem Definition
Learning about the challenges faced by job seekers
Using insights from the user personas, I mapped out our users’ journey on competitor websites to identify pain points that could serve as opportunities for his upcoming website.
After analyzing the user journey map, I framed the following “How Might We” question to guide the ideation process:
How might we convince users to sign up for newsletters that will help them achieve their career aspirations and enter their desired industries?
Ideation
Insights that lead to actionable ideas.
In a series of brainstorming sessions, I developed key features and a sitemap centered around showcasing credentials, subscription benefits, and testimonials. These elements were designed to persuade prospects to sign up and engage with articles that could inspire their job search. Additionally, I created several style tile options, from which the client chose the one that best matched his business and branding.
Feature List:
These documents were instrumental in helping my client understand the content requirements and visualize the overall look and feel of the website. They also enabled him to develop content in parallel with the prototype design and website development.
Prototyping
Prototyping Adam Phillips’ website
I used Figma to design a low-fidelity mockup, carefully considering the capabilities of WordPress and Beehiiv to effectively display the content and layout of each web page. Once the mockup was approved, I developed the design components and a medium-fidelity prototype for testing.
Testing
Ensuring the prototype’s usability and appeal
I conducted usability testing with one of Adam’s existing clients who fit the “Immigrant” persona. This allowed us to identify areas for improvement in terms of branding, look & feel, and user flow. The test results were synthesized into an empathy map to gather actionable insights:
These insights showed us what makes Adam’s approach stand out from other career coaches, which gave us valuable feedback that guided the improvements to his website and branding. I focused on updating the design to be trustworthy, easygoing, and empathetic, which resonates with job seekers and encourages them to sign up for his newsletter.
Development
Transforming the prototype into a functional website
I used WordPress and the Kadence Theme to create custom web pages, adding extra customizations and animations with CSS. Beehiiv was integrated using RSS feeds and its sign-up form, ensuring users could easily subscribe and access all newsletters directly on the website. I also tested the website’s functionality across all platforms to ensure users could successfully subscribe to the newsletter, message Adam via the contact form, and view all posts seamlessly from Beehiiv to WordPress.
Reflection
The website will be launched in September. I will monitor the website for any bugs and will collaboratively work with Adam to enhance his SEO by installing analytics, injecting important keywords, and coding effective ALT tags to enhance his organic search results.
Ultimately, Adam was fantastic to work with. His easygoing nature made the project a pleasure from start to finish. Through this experience, I learned a few key things:
