Web Design · Visual Design

Productive Energy Solutions

Role

UX and Visual Designer

Timeline

Jan to May 2025, 5 months

Tools

Figma

A B2B energy consulting firm had been invisible online for over a decade. I led the end-to-end redesign of their website to give them a presence that reflects their expertise and converts the right visitors.

Productive Energy Solutions website design

What is Productive Energy Solutions?

Productive Energy Solutions has been optimizing industrial fan, pump, and blower systems since 1998. They offer online courses and in-person consulting to engineers and facility managers across North America.

My Role

I led the UX and visual design across research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and the final website direction.

Context

A company with 25 years of expertise, and a website that showed none of it.

Unless you already knew their name, you would never find them. Their website had not been updated in over a decade, search engines could barely read it, dozens of links were broken, and there was no clear way for a visitor to understand what the company did or how to reach them.

Before state of the Productive Energy Solutions website showing old homepage, training, services, and contact pages

Before — outdated homepage, training, service, and contact pages with unclear hierarchy and scattered navigation

Problem

The site was actively working against the business.

No discoverability

The outdated platform meant search engines could not index the site. New clients had no way of finding the company online.

Broken throughout

Dozens of dead links across the site. Any visitor who did land there quickly lost trust and left.

No clear path forward

Services, training, and tools were scattered with no information hierarchy guiding users toward contact.

Research

Getting clear on the space before touching anything.

Competitive Analysis, 10+ companies

Patterns across the industry

Strong competitors opened with a bold impact statement and CTA above the fold
Client logos and scale numbers appeared early to establish credibility
Blog and case study sections built trust over time
Service pages focused on client outcomes, not internal categories

Client Interviews, 5 sessions

What the client was actually dealing with

Potential clients were not finding them through organic search
The site made the company look smaller and less credible
Online training and consulting were confusing visitors
The site needed detail for engineers and summaries for executives

User Profile

Engineers and facility managers, mostly 35 and older

Busy, technically literate people who are skeptical by default and make quick judgments about credibility. They scan before committing to read, and leave if the site does not answer their first question within a few seconds.

Design Approach

I started with structure, not screens.

The old site had grown organically over years without anyone stepping back to look at it as a whole. Before opening Figma, I mapped every existing page and connection. Pages nested inside pages, navigation branched in too many directions, and there was no clear route from landing to contact. The redesign started by simplifying all of that down to four core sections.

Before

Over 20 pages, overlapping navigation, no clear primary path

After

Simplified Productive Energy Solutions sitemap

Simplified to Home, Services, About, and Contact

Exploration and iteration

With the structure locked in, I moved into design exploration. Each page went through multiple iterations before committing to a direction.

Figma overview showing multiple iterations across Home, Services, About, and Contact pages

Figma overview — multiple iterations across Home, Services, About, and Contact

A key design decision

Clarity over novelty.

The client asked for an interactive game on the homepage. After mapping it against the user profile, A/B testing, and walking through the research together, we agreed it created friction exactly where users needed to assess credibility and find a path to contact.

Rejected

Interactive game on the homepage

Engaging in isolation, but it added friction at the moment users needed clarity.

Chosen

Trust-first, scannable layout

A fast, impact-driven hero followed by dedicated modules designed to earn trust.

Solution

A clearer site built around credibility, structure, and action.

The final direction turns a fragmented legacy site into a focused B2B experience: visitors understand what the company does, see proof that the company can be trusted, and have a clear route toward contact or training.

Solution 01 · Consolidating Redundant Content

Turn scattered pages into a clearer site structure.

The original site had more than 20 pages with overlapping navigation and repeated information. I consolidated the structure into four core sections so visitors could quickly understand the company, compare services, and move forward without digging through outdated pages.

Reduced the sitemap to Home, Services, About, and Contact
Grouped training and consulting content into clearer entry points
Removed duplicate paths that made the site feel larger but less useful

Solution 02 · Enhancing Trust

Make credibility visible in the page flow.

For a technically skeptical B2B audience, credibility had to appear inside the page flow instead of being hidden on a separate About page. The redesign uses evidence modules like client geography, impact numbers, testimonials, and industry-specific language to make expertise visible while people scan.

Added an animated client map to show scale across North America
Placed testimonials where visitors are already evaluating the company
Used concrete proof points instead of broad marketing claims

Solution 03 · Clarifying the Conversion Path

Give each visitor a clear next step.

The new homepage leads with a direct value statement, surfaces impact numbers early, and gives visitors a clear next step. Instead of making users interpret the site structure themselves, the redesign guides them toward the most useful action: learning about services, exploring training, or contacting the team.

Moved the primary CTA into the first viewport
Separated consulting and training paths so different visitors can self-select
Kept contact access visible after credibility has been established

Results

Within three months of launching, the numbers told the story.

+60%increase in web traffic after launch

20+new inbound leads from clients who found them online

★LinkedIn recommendation from the client

Reflection

What I took away from this project

Saying no to the game was probably the most important design decision on this project. The client was excited about it, and it took real effort to redirect that energy somewhere more useful. It taught me that advocacy for the user is most valuable precisely when it conflicts with what the stakeholder wants. The research gave me the language to have that conversation without it feeling like a rejection.

This project also made clear how much work trust is doing in B2B design. The animated map and testimonials were not the most visually complex parts of the site, but they became the most consequential. Twenty-plus new clients reaching out within three months confirmed it: for this audience, credibility is the product.