This redesign was both challenging and satisfying. There were several design decisions that were debated upon at length prior to being implemented, not the least of which was the new look and feel of the lead capture form. The original form was on the front page of the original website, and was several pages long but with only a few fields per page and no indication of how long the full form was. It was ultimately determined that this kind of form structure could be a turnoff to potential customers because there was no indication of how long it was, which could be viewed as somewhat obfuscating, although that was not the intention of the original form. The new form is all on one page, and fully discloses the length and types of questions to customers, letting them see everything up front so as to be more transparent and comforting.
Beyond the form, a lot of new web-based features only available in recent years have been implemented into the new site. This includes parallax image effects as well as CSS3-based animations that allow content to literally fly into the page as you scroll through the website. The site is also packed with information to help customers become informed about loan products and even includes extras such as a completely redesigned mortgage calculator and purchase as well as refinance checklists to help with their planning. The end result of this redesign is that Local Rate 411 is not only beautiful to behold, but also highly functional. The results of this new redesign can be seen below:
- The original website
- The all-new localrate411.com