Hello,
I work at a company called Modular Solutions (The-Modular-Solution . com)
We created our website with Wordpress using Elementor and other common plugins.
We had someone comment that this looked/felt homemade. I have some ideas on how to improve it but I’m also reaching out to people in the design industry who might have some specific suggestions that might also help. If you have a minute to take a look and could give me some feedback I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
The site doesn’t look terrible but it looks like a standard WordPress site.
Rather than looks, the immediate problem I see is the user experience (UX) as opposed to the appearance of the interface (UI). I’m not your target audience, however. Perhaps they would understand your site better. For example, I have no clue what “pre-engineered guarding solutions” are.
With my ignorance of your business in mind, I’m seeing signs of a typical problem many companies run into with external communications. That problem is approaching customer communications from an inside-the-company perspective rather than from the customers’ perspective. Placing yourself in the position of your target audience is essential. It’s only then you can see what problems they might have with the site that you — someone who knows the company inside and out — don’t see.
When I worked at ad agencies, we typically approached these problems using focus groups with a paid facilitator. The facilitator would assemble a random group of possible customers, then gradually lead them into looking at websites (or whatever). This always needed to be done carefully to avoid bias or letting the focus group know exactly what they were there to do. Eventually, in your case, the facilitator would show your website along with, perhaps, other similar sites. Then the facilitator would ask questions like, What are these websites about? Which appeals to you more? Let’s say you’re looking for information or prices on a particular item; can you find it easily? Does it give you the information you need?
These sessions were always conducted with two-way mirrors so the clients could see and hear the focus group responses without the focus groups knowing they were being observed. These sessions were always enlightening to the clients. They always came away with a better appreciation of their customer’s concerns and how to address them.
Have you tried anything similar? It doesn’t need to be as formal as what I described. You can simply bring in a handful of potential customers, pay them $100 each, and ask them to perform various tasks on your site. If they repeatedly get stuck in the same places, whether or not it seems evident to you from your inside-the-company perspective, that problem needs addressing.
I don’t want to minimize the importance of the site’s looks. That someone you mentioned commenting on the site looking homemade gives you a clue that something is wrong. However, people aren’t very articulate when describing what is bothering them. If you flat-out ask them, they’ll invent an answer since they know you expect one. The real problem is usually something deeper they can’t put their finger on. Observing people interact with the site and taking note of their frustrations usually works better.
My first thought is that the design isn’t sizing to fit the browser window, which is giving me 2004 web design vibes. I think the overuse of gradients and patterns/textures is too busy and is contributing to the homemade feel. As this is an industrial brand, a more sleek simple look would be appropriate. The heading and body copy sizes should be revisited based on the importance of the heading. Some buttons and CTAs get lost because they’re too small. I don’t think gray is a very effective CTA color choice since it sort of fades into the background.
I would say that it’s a good draft but could use some polish to improve ease of use and aesthetics.
Your biggest problem is the fact that your company shares its name and web address with another business, which is very confusing and could potentially lead to a lawsuit:
The hyphens in your domain name mean that the above web address was already taken, so they were first to use the name.
To avoid confusion and legal trouble, you should rename your company.
wow - good find.
But curious why they should rename their company? Why wouldn’t the other company rename?
Why rename at all?
In total, the name “Modular Solution(s)” is shared by five different companies:
https://www.modularsolutionsltd.com
https://www.modularsolutions.net
They really need a name that will clearly set them apart from the other businesses.
But why change it?
It’s not what the OP wants to know they want to know about the website function and design.
Thanks. I appreciate the advice to get feedback from people outside our company and industry. That seems like it could definitely add a better level of user experience.
I appreciate the feedback on the website being too busy. I think a cleaner less busy look would add to a more professional look and experience
Honestly, I’d say get designers involved. It will pay dividends in the end. I don’t mean ones you can get for a few bucks on competitions sites. I mean serious designer who will listen to what you want to communicate and achieve and who you want to talk to and then create something that does its job. Just owning a saw will never make you a master craftsman.
In my opinion the unoriginal and unmemorable name is the elephant in the room.
You should rename the company to something unique, build a branding strategy around the new name and then find someone who will redesign your website according to the strategy.
Agree with @sprout
One off cost for dev and design usually comes standard with a maintainace service contract for fixes updates etc.
Much richer experience for customers and headache off your plate.
Thanks for the feedback on the name. From what I understand we have the rights we need to function under the name Modular Solutions. I think one of the biggest challenges in this day and age with the internet and whatnot is finding a unique name thats still relevant to what you’re doing. From what I’ve seen most of the other companies with the same name are in different industries or have different niches and it’s not our intent to piggy back off anything they’ve been doing. I think you’re making valid points with what you say and nobody wants legal trouble or to have wasted marketing efforts. We debated quite a few different names and finally decided on this one based off the products and solutions we offer for the industrial and automation market.