The first redesign defined the ambition. The second had to survive reality.
PROJECT
eyeo.com Redesign
ROLE
Visual Design, UX/UI, Information Architecture
PERIOD
2018 · Shipped
What the first redesign taught us
By 2018, we weren’t starting from scratch. The first redesign had already helped us separate the company, its products, initiatives and different audiences more clearly. It had also shown us where the existing website and development setup would struggle.
The 2017 concepts required more flexibility than the existing architecture, content model and development patterns could support without significant engineering work. So for the second attempt, implementation had to be considered much earlier.
A more realistic starting point
We reused what had worked from the first attempt instead of beginning again. The product structure was clearer, we understood the communication problems better, and we already had a visual direction to work from. This time I needed to fit those ideas into something the existing platform could realistically support.
Navigation, page hierarchy, reusable sections and product presentation all became more practical. We still wanted to move away from the rigid company-first website, but there was no point designing another version that would stall during development.
I was checking implementation constraints while designing rather than treating them as something to solve afterwards. That naturally made the second direction simpler than the first one, but also much more likely to ship.
THE JOURNEY
Ambition → Constraints → System → Shipped
Ambition
EXPLORE WHAT’S POSSIBLE
The 2017 redesign defined a bold direction and set the ambition for a clearer, more product-led website.
Constraints
WORK WITH REALITY
In 2018, legacy systems, content complexity, limited resources and practical timelines became part of the design problem.
System
DESIGN A VIABLE SOLUTION
The direction became a simpler, repeatable set of page structures and patterns that balanced ambition with implementation needs.
Shipped
REAL IMPACT, NEXT STEPS
The new eyeo.com launched in 2018 ~ not as the untouched 2017 concept, but as a meaningful step forward that could actually live in production.
SAME MISSION. A MORE REALISTIC PATH FORWARD.
Keeping the ideas that mattered
We kept several things from the first redesign: clearer hierarchy, larger typography, stronger use of photography and more space for individual products to explain themselves.
I didn’t try to reproduce the 2017 screens page for page. Some ideas translated easily, while others depended on flexibility the platform didn’t have. Those were simplified or dropped, and the pages were built around structures we could repeat.
Designing for implementation
The core pages used clearer content hierarchy and a smaller set of reusable section patterns. We also simplified the navigation so the company, products and recruitment content were easier to find without requiring a completely new publishing model underneath.
The interface was more modular, but there was still room for photography, product colours and different types of content. For development, there were fewer one-off layouts to build and maintain.
The redesign that shipped
The new eyeo.com shipped in 2018. Home, About, Products, Jobs, Team, Contact and Press were rebuilt with the same navigation, hierarchy and visual language.
It wasn’t a pixel-for-pixel continuation of the 2017 concept. Some ideas were simplified, some changed to fit the platform and others disappeared entirely. But the site was no longer organised like the one I had inherited in 2016.
What shipping changed
Not every idea from 2017 made it into the shipped site. What did make it through was the clearer product structure, dedicated spaces for different parts of the company and a smaller set of page patterns that didn’t require designing and developing every page from scratch.
Looking back, I see the two redesigns as parts of the same project. The first gave us room to explore. The second was where we made the decisions needed to get the work into production.
The first redesign asked what eyeo.com could become. The second turned that ambition into something people could actually use.
